THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE 
IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


I'hoto  by  IV .  11. 


NESTLING  HOATZIN  CLIMBING  WITH  FINGERS  AND  TOES 


TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE 

IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


ZOOLOGICAL  CONTRIBUTIONS 
FROM  THE  TROPICAL  RESEARCH  STATION 
OF  THE  NEW  YORK  ZOOLOGICAL  SOCIETY 


BY 
WILLIAM  BEEBE, 

DIRECTING    CURATOR 

G.  INNESS  HARTLEY  AND   PAUL  G.  HOWES 

RESEARCH  ASSOCIATE  RESEARCH  ASSISTANT 


WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY 

COLONEL  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 
VOLUME  I. 

Photographs  and  Other  Illustrations 
by  the  Authors 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  NEW  YORK  ZOOLOGICAL  SOCIETY 

111  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK  CITY 

JANUARY,  1917 


COPYRIGHT  1917,  BY 
THE  NEW  YORK  ZOOLOGICAL  SOCIETY 


lEUirU  Sc  *Frit t » 


14 


VN      \ 


an 

hr    six    umtlrmrii    uiluuir    ururrmutu   nuihr 

punsiihlr  ihr  first  year's  rxtntrtur  of 

thr  (irnpiral  iScHrarrh  Station 

C.  LED  YARD  BLAIR 

ANDREW  CARNEGIE 

CLEVELAND  H.  DODGE 

GEORGE  J.  GOULD 

MORTIMER  L.  SCHIFF 

AND  THE  LATE 

JAMES  J.  HILL 

Sifts  imlump  ts  indicated  fag  lift  Authors. 


"Let  men  stew  in  their  cities  if  they  will.  It  is  in 
the  lonely  places,  in  jungles  and  mountains,  in  snows 
and  fires,  in  the  still  observatories  and  the  silent  labora- 
tories, in  those  secret  and  dangerous  places  where  life 
probes  into  life,  it  is  there  that  the  masters  of  the  world, 
the  lords  of  the  beast,  the  rebel  sons  of  Fate  come  to 
their  own." 

H.   G.   WELLS. 


INTRODUCTION 

The  establishment  of  the  Tropical  Research  station  in 
British  Guiana  by  the  New  York  Zoological  Society  marks 
the  beginning  of  a  wholly  new  type  of  biological  work,  capa- 
ble of  literally  illimitable  expansion.  It  provides  for  inten- 
sive study,  in  the  open  field,  of  the  teeming  animal  life  of 
the  tropics. 

One  pleasant  feature  of  the  station  is  the  cordial  hos- 
pitality it  extends  to  all  naturalists.  Jealousy  !is  regarded 
as  utterly  unworthy,  and  the  whole  effort  of  the  station  is 
to  secure,  from  whatever  source,  the  most  thorough  research 
possible.  Every  original  investigator  fit  to  work  in  the  field 
is  sure  of  an  eager  welcome  and  of  all  possible  aid  in  his 
studies. 

The  time  has  passed  when  we  can  afford  to  accept  as 
satisfactory  a  science  of  animal  life  whose  professors  are 
either  mere  roaming  field  collectors  or  mere  closet  cata- 
logue  writers  who  examine  arid  record  minute  differences 
in  "specimens"  precisely  as  philatelists  examine  and  record 
minute  differences  in  postage  stamps — and  with  about  the 
same  breadth  of  view  and  power  of  insight  into  the  essen- 
tial.  Little  is  to  be  gained  by  that  kind  of  "intensive"  col- 
lecting and  cataloguing  which  bears  fruit  only  in  innumer- 
able little  pamphlets  describing  with  meticulous  care  un- 
important new  subspecies,  or  new  "species"  hardly  to  be 
distinguished  from  those  already  long  known.  Such  pamph- 
lets have  almost  no  real  interest  except  for  the  infrequent 
rival  specialists  who  read  them  with  quarrelsome  interest. 

Of  course  a  good  deal  can  still  be  done  by  the  collector 
who  covers  a  wide  field,  if  in  addition  to  being  a  collector 
he  is  a  good  field  naturalist  and  a  close  and  intelligent  ob- 
server; and  there  must  be  careful  laboratory  study  of  series 
of  specimens  of  all  kinds.  But  the  stage  has  now  been 
reached  when  not  only  life  histories,  but  even  taxonomic 


X  INTRODUCTION 

characters  can  normally  be  studied  better  in  the  field  than 
in  a  museum — or  at  least,  when,  although  both  types  of  study- 
are  necessary,  the  field  study  is  the  more  important;  and 
when  intensive  study  in  the  field,  as  carried  on  at  this  sta- 
tion, yields  more  important  results  than  can  normally  be 
achieved  by  the  roaming  collector. 

In  addition,  it  must  always  be  remembered  that  the 
really  first  class  naturalist  whose  observations  are  to  bear 
most  fruit^must  possess  the  gift  of  vividly  truthful  por- 
trayal of  wjiat  he  has  possessed,  the  vision  clearly  to  see  in 
its  real  essentials.  The  best  scientific  books,  from  Darwin 
and  Wallace  to  Bates  and  Waterton  and  Audubon,  are 
those  which  possess  such  vision  and  are  so  interesting  to 
intelligent  laymen  that  they  are  often  to  be  found  in  the 
libraries  of  cultivated  people  who  are  not  professed  scien- 
tists. Mr.  Beebe  has  the  wide  horizon  of  interest,  and  the 
happy  art  of  expression,  which  entitle  him  to  go  in  this 
class. 

This  gift  of  expression  is  of  value  because  it  is  based 
on  a  really  phenomenal  gift  of  both  wide  and  minutely  in- 
tensive observation.  The  fundamental  differences  between 
the  quality  of  his  study  and  the  quality  of  the  study  of  the 
average  closet  museum  worker  can  be  illustrated  by  his  ob- 
servation of  those  queer  South  American  game  birds,  the 
tinamous. 

Closet  naturalists  have  long  known  that  some  of  the 
tinamou  had  rough,  and  some  smooth,  tarsi.  This  fact 
awakened  no  curiosity  in  their  minds,  no  desire  to  find  out 
whether  it  was  correlated  with  any  difference  in  habits  'or 
life  history.  They  simply  treated  it  as  justifying  a  termin- 
ological decision  as  to  whether  it  marked  a  genus  or  a  sub- 
genus;  and  examined  the  tarsus  of  each  specimen  with  only 
sufficient  care  to  enable  them  to  decide  the  specimen-drawer 
into  which  it  should  be  thrown. 

Beebe  was  a  different  kind  of  observer,  and  he  was 
working  in  the  birds'  haunts,  in  Demerara.  The  small  tina- 


INTRODUCTION  XI 

mou  has  smooth  tarsi;  its  nesting  habits  are  extraordinary, 
for  the  male  makes  the  nest,  stays  with  it  until  he  can  per- 
suade a  roving  female  to  drop  an  egg  in  it,  and  then  hatches 
the  egg  and  rears  the  chick,  while  the  female  goes  off;  and 
as  soon  as  the  chick  is  fairly  grown  the  male  finds  another 
temporary  mate  of  advanced  feministic  views.  The  big  tina- 
mou  has  more  normal  nesting  habits,  although  the  male 
hatches  and  rears  the  family.  This  tinamou  has  rough  tarsi. 

Beebe  found  that  there  was  always  dust  or  dirt  in  these 
rough  tarsi;  one  day  he  sterilized  some  earth,  by  heat, 
scraped  the  dirt  from  a  rough  tinamou  tarsus  into  it,  and 
reared  the  culture.  Various  plants  came  up,  and  all  of  them 
were  arboreal.  Inasmuch  as  during  the  daytime  the  big 
tinamou,  like  the  little  tinamou,  was  a  ground  bird,  this 
seemed  to  indicate  that  it  roosted  in  the  trees  at  night.  Cau- 
tious inquiry  of  the  Indians  (so  made  as  not  to  indicate 
that  a  given  answer  was  expected)  drew  forth  the 'statement 
that  at  night  the  little  tinamou  roosted  on  the  ground,  the 
big  one  in  trees.  Finally,  watching  from  a  shelter  one  eve- 
ning, Beebe  actually  saw  a  big  tinamou  ascend  a  tree  and 
squat  lengthwise  on  a  branch,  just  before  darkness  came  on. 

The  invaluable  studies  on  the  various  stages  of  the 
breeding  habits,  the  nestling  development,  the  molting 
changes  of  hoatzins,  toucans,  anis,  jacanas,  not  to  speak 
of  the  studies  of  the  strange  swarming  insect  life,  and 
the  mammalian  life,  could  only  have  been  made  by  trained 
field  observers  working  with  intensive  observation  out  in  the 
field  at  the  tropical  station.  Mr.  Beebe  and  his  associates, 
Messrs.  Hartley  and  Howes,  have  not  only  done  a  first  class 
job,  but  they  have  pointed  out  the  way  into  what  is  probably 
the  most  fruitful  field  for  original  and  productive  biological 
investigation. 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 
Sagamore  Hill, 

December  10,  1916. 


PREFACE 

In  this  volume  my  object  is  two-fold.  First,  to  deline- 
ate as  concisely  and  vividly  as  lies  in  my  power,  the  general 
aspects  of  the  tropical  jungle  and  its  animal  life  as  far  as 
these  came  under  our  observation,  and  to  emphasize  the  mani- 
fold interest  and  the  paucity  of  dangers  which  it  offers  to 
the  scientist  or  nature-lover.  To  put  it  in  another  way,  I 
have  attempted  a  resume  of  the  grosser,  more  apparent 
characteristics  of  the  region  which  we  have  been  studying, 
to  form  a  background,  however  sketchy  and  unfinished,  for 
the  more  intensive,  concrete  investigations  which  follow,  as 
well  as  those  which  may  be  undertaken  in  the  future. 

Secondly,  I  present  the  studies  which  my  two  co-work- 
ers and  myself  have  been  enabled  to  carry  on  during  six 
months  of  the  current  year,  1916,  from  March  to  August 
inclusive,  at  the  Tropical  Research  Station  established  under 
the  auspices  of  the  New  York  Zoological  Society.  It  thus 
represents  that  portion  of  the  first  year's  work,  which  is 
available  for  present  publication. 

At  the  request  of  Prof.  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn  I  took 
charge  of  the  Tropical  Research  Station  as  Directing  Cur- 
ator. With  me  went  G.  Inness  Hartley  as  Research  Asso- 
ciate, Paul  G.  Howes  as  Research  Assistant  and  Donald 
Carter  as  Collector.  Two  artists,  Miss  Rachel  Hartley  and 
Miss  Anna  H.  Taylor  completed  our  party.  Whatever 
success  has  attended  this  first  year  of  work  is  due  to  the  unsel- 
fish interest  and  thoughtful  co-operation  of  all  the  members. 

Compared  with  the  problems  still  to  be  solved  and  the 
researches  of  the  future,  our  efforts  seem  like  the  scratch  of 
a  single  dredge  along  'the  bottom  of  an  unknown  ocean. 
This  contribution  is  intended  to  arouse  interest  in  dynamic 
and  sustained  field  observation  in  the  tropics,  and  to  dispel 
some  of  the  groundless  fears  which,  in  the  minds  of  intend- 


XIV  PREFACE 

ing  visitors,  invest  these  wonderful  regions.  It  will,  I  hope, 
supplement  and  add  to  the  value  of  museum  zoological  work, 
just  as  this  tropical  field  research  must,  in  turn,  rest  upon  a 
firm  foundation  of  laboratory  investigation.  I  desire  that 
this  volume  be  considered  as  the  joint  contribution  of  Inness 
Hartley,  Paul  Howes  and  myself. 

In  detail,  Mr.  Hartley's  researches  have  been  concerned 
chiefly  with  the  gathering  of  ornithological  data  and  with 
problems  of  embryology,  while  Mr.  Howes  has  confined  his 
work  to  entomology.  The  photographic  illustrations  are 
from  negatives  taken  by  Mr.  Howes  and  myself.  For  the 
pastel  of  two  trumpeter  chicks  I  am  indebted  to  Miss  Persis 
Kirmse. 

WILLIAM  BEEBE. 

Kalacoon  House, 

Hills  Estate, 

Mazaruni  River, 

British  Guiana. 

August  10,  1916. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

DEDICATION    VII 

INTRODUCTION  BY  COLONEL  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  IX 

PREFACE     XIII 

PART   I— BY  WILLIAM  BEEBE. 

I — ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  TROPICAL  RESEARCH  STATION 23 

IL — HISTORICAL  BARTICA  .• 31 

III — THE  NATURALISTS  OF  BARTICA  DISTRICT 38 

IV — THE  GENERAL  FIELD  OF  WORK  43 

V — THE  OPEN  CLEARING  AND  SECONDGROWTH  51 

VI — THE  JUNGLE  AND  ITS  LIFE 69 

VII — THE  BIRD  LIFE  OF  BARTICA  DISTRICT  91 

VIII — LIST  OF  THE  BIRDS  OF  BARTICA  DISTRICT  127 

IX — AKAWAI    INDIAN   AND   COLONIAL   NAMES   OF   BIRDS  AND 

MAMMALS  OF  BARTICA  138 

X — METHODS  OF  RESEARCH  147 

XI — FURTHER   NOTES   ON   THE   LIFE   HISTORY   OF   HOATZINS  155 

XII— THE  HOMES  OF  TOUCANS  183 

XIII — ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  211 

XIV — YOUNG  GREY-BACKED  TRUMPETERS  247 

XV— THE  WAYS  OF  TINAMOU  » 253 

XVI — WILD  LIFE  NEAR  KALACOON  271 

XVII — THE  ALLIGATORS  OF  GUIANA  283 

PART  II — BY  G.  INNESS  HARTLEY. 

XVIII — NOTES  ON  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  JACANA 293 

XIX — NOTES  ON  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SMOOTH-BILLED 

ANI  307 

XX — NOTES  ON  A  FEW  EMBRYOS 321 

XXI — NESTING  HABITS  OF  THE  GREY-BREASTED  MARTIN 328 

XXII — PRELIMINARY   NOTES    ON    THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE 

WING  

XXIII— NOTES  ON  THE  PERAI  FISH  359 


XVI  CONTENTS 

PART   III— BY  PAUL  G.   HOWES. 

XXIV — THE  BEES  AND  WASPS  OF  BARTICA 371 

XXV— Two  POTTER  WASPS  376 

XXVI — LARVAL  SACRIFICE  386 

XXVII  —THE  BLACK  REED-WASP  394 

XXVIII— THE  WHITE-FOOTED  WASP  401 

XXIX — THE  FOREST  SHELL-WASP  407 

XXX — THE  ONE-BANDED  DAUBER  ._ 415 

XXXI— THE  BLUE  HUNTRESS  424 

XXXII — PARALYZED  PROVENDER  436 

XXXIII — CONTROLLED  PUPATION  443 

PART  IV — SUPPLEMENTARY  CHAPTERS. 

XXXIV — NOTES  FROM  THE   HINTERLAND  OF  GUIANA,   Walter  G. 

White  .'. 453 

XXV — INDIAN  CHARMS  James  Rod-way  488 

GENERAL   INDEX   ...  501 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PARE 

NESTLING  HOATZIN  CLIMBING  Frontispiece 

1.  MAP  OF  COASTAL  BRITISH  GUIANA  24 

2.  STREET  IN  GEORGETOWN  > 25 

3.  VICTORIA  REGIA,  BOTANICAL  GARDEN,  GEORGETOWN 26 

4.  KALACOON   HOUSE   27 

5.  CORNER  OF  LABORATORY  IN  KALACOON   HOUSE  28 

6.  RUINS  OF  THE  OLD  DUTCH   FORT,  KYK-OVER-AL  30 

7.  BARTICA  WITH  ITS  SINGLE  STREET  34 

8.  GOLD-BOAT  LEAVING  BARTICA  FOR  UPPER  MAZAHUNI 36 

9.  PENAL  SETTLEMENT  FROM  KALACOON  40 

10.  KALACOON  FROM  THE  EAST  44 

11.  MAP  OF  GENERAL  FIELD  OF  WORK,  BARTICA  DISTRICT  46 

12.  OUTCROPPING  OF  AURIFEROUS  QUARTZ  NEAR  KALACOON  47 

13.  MAZARUNI  RIVER  FROM  NEAR  KALACOON  LANDING 48 

14.  LOOKING   SOUTH   FROM    KALACOON   COMPOUND   50 

15.  NEWLY-CLEARED  JUNGLE  53 

16.  PURE  CULTURE  OF  NEW  GROWN  CECROPIAS  55 

17.  THICKET  OF  REEDS  ON  CLEARED  JUNGLE  LAND  56 

18.  FLOWERS  OF  THE  GUIANA   A LLA MANDA  57 

19.  SECONDGROWTH    THICKET    OVERRUN    BY    RAZOR    GRASS  58 

20.  GRASSY  AREA  OF  SECONDGROWTH 62 

21.  JUNGLE  AT  THE  EDGE  OF  SECONDGROWTH  64 

22.  JUNGLE  FROM  THE  MAZARUNI,  SHOWING  GIANT   MORA  66 

23.  OPEN  JUNGLE  SHOWING  INDIAN  TRAIL  68 

24.  BASK  AND  ROOTS  OF  GIANT  MORA  TREE  72 

25.  JUNGLE    FUNGUS    74 

26.  HOLLOW  TREE,  USED  FOR  OBSERVATION  AND  SHELTER  77 

27.  IN  THE  HEART  OF  THE  JUNGLE,  SEARCHING  FOR  A  TOU- 

CAN'S NEST,  AMID  THE  TANGLE  OF  A  FELLED  TREE  78 

28.  BEESA    MONKEY,   AN   INHABITANT   OF  THE    TREE   TOPS  82 

29.  GIANT  LARVA  OF  RHINOCEROS  BEETLE  84 

30.  MACUSHI  INDIAN  ON  His  SHOOTING  PLATFORM  •  86 

31.  AKAWAI  INDIAN  BRINGING  IN  PECCARY  FOR  OUR  TABLE  89 

32.  GREAT  JACOBIN  HUMMINGBIRD  ON  ROOSTING  PERCH 113 

33.  AKAWAI  INDIAN  BRINGING  IN  AGOUTIS  AND  CURASSOWS  118 

34.  SHIPPING  CRATES  OF  LIVE  MAMMALS,  BIRDS  AND  REP- 

TILES FROM  KALACOON  LANDING  124 

35.  JUNGLE   PIT   No.   FIVE,  WHICH   TRAPPED   MANY   MICE 

AND   AMPHIBIANS   ...  149 


XVIII  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fig.     36.     CAN.TE  CREEK,  SHOWING  MUCKA-MUCKA  AND  BUNUARI 

PlMPLER,    HOME    OF    THE    HoATZIN    154 

37.  MUCKA-MUCKA,  CHARACTERISTIC  GROWTH  OF  THE 

HOATZINS'  HAUNTS  1 57 

38.  BtlNDURI     PlMPLER     TANGLE,     SHOWING     THREE      NESTS 

AND  Six  HOATZINS  161 

39.  NEST  OF  THE  HOATZIN  BUILT  OVER  THE  WATER 162 

40.  HOATZIN  ON  NEST  CONTAINING  Two  NESTLINGS  165 

41.  NESTLING  HOATZINS  PREPARING  TO  CLIMB  OR  DIVE 167 

42.  HOATZINS  CLIMBING  BY  NECK,  FINGERS  AND  TOES 168 

43.  NEST  AND  Two  EGGS  OF  THE  HOATZIN  173 

44.  YOUNG  HOATZIN   ATTEMPTING  TO   PROGRESS  ON  SOLID 

GROUND    175 

45.  YOUNG  HOATZIN  SWIMMING  TOWARD  THE  RIGHT; 

HEAD,  WINGS,  BACK  AND  TAIL  SHOWING  177 

46.  YOUNG  HOATZIN  CLIMBING,  SHOWING  USE  OF  THUMB 

AND  FORE  FINGER  WITH  THEIR  CLAWS  178 

47.  RED-BILLED  TOUCAN   185 

48.  DEAD  TREE  SHOWING  NESTING  HOLE  OF  GREEN  ARA- 

CARI  TOUCAN  1 86 

49.  OUR  NEGRO  CLIMBER,  SIXTY  FEET  UP  188 

50.  TALL,  NESTING  TREE  OF  RED-BILLED  TOUCAN  190 

51.  NEST    OF    RED-BILLED    TOUCAN,    SHOWING    ENTRANCE 

AND  BASE,  THE  LATTER  OPENED  OUT  WITH   AXE  194 

52.  EGGS  AND  NESTING  MATERIAL  OF  RED-BILLED  TOUCAN  195 

53.  EGGS  OF  RED-BILLED  TOUCAN,  NATURAL  SIZE  197 

54.  TREE  WITH  NESTING  HOLE  OF  BLACK-NECKED  ARACARI  198 

55.  FRONT  VIEW  OF  TEN-DAY-OLD  ARACARI   200 

56.  SIDE  VIEW  OF  TEN-DAY-OLD  ARACARI  201 

57.  SIDE  VIEW  OF  SEVENTEEN-DAY-OLD  ARACARI  202 

58.  HEEL-PAD  OF  TEN-DAY-OLD  ARACARI  TOUCAN  204 

59.  HEEL-PAD  OF  SEVENTEEN-DAY-OLD  ARACARI  TOUCAN 205 

60.  LEFT    HEEL-PAD    OF    TEN-DAY-OLD    ARACARI    TOUCAN, 

SHOWING  RELATION  TO  LEG  AND  TARSUS  208 

61.  MID- JUNGLE,  HIDING  UNDISCOVERED  NEST  OF  SUPLHUR- 

AND-WHITE-BREASTED  TOUCAN  210 

62.  NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  TALPACOTI  GROUND  DOVE  212 

63.  NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  WHITE-NECKED  CRAKE  214 

64.  NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  CAYENNE  CRAKE  217 

65.  EGG  OF  DUSKY  NIGHTHAWK  218 

66.  NEST  OF  GUIANA  TYRANTLET  220 

67.  NEST  OF  THE  OILY  FLY-CATCHER  222 

68.  NEST  ANG  EGGS  OF  CINEREUS  BUSHBIRD  226 

69.  NESTING  STUB  OF  RUFOUS-FRONTED  ANTCATCHER  228 

70.  NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  RUFOUS-FRONTED  ANTCATCHER 230 

71.  NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  QUADRILLE  BIRD  232 

72.  NEST  AND  EGOS  OF  ORANGE-HEADED  MANAKIN  ...  .  236 


ILLUSTRATIONS  XIX 

Fig.     73.  NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  BROWN-BREASTED  PYGMY  GROSBEAK  238 

74.  NEST  AND  EGGS   OF   CHESTNUT-BELLIED   SEED-EATER  240 

75.  NEST  OF  THE  BLUE  HONEY  CREEPER  242 

76.  NEST  OF  MORICHE  ORIOLE  244 

77.  YOUNG  GREY-BACKED  TRUMPETERS.  Color  Plate,  facing  247 

78.  YOUNG  TRUMPETERS  FOUR  DAYS  OLD  248 

79.  YOUNG  TRUMPETERS  Two  MONTHS  OLD  250 

80.  ROUNDED  WING  AND   DEGENERATE   TAIL  OF  TINAMOU  254 

81.  ROUGH  TARSUS  OF  TINAMUS  256 

82.  SMOOTH  TARSUS  OF  CRYPTERUS  257 

83.  NESTING  SITE  OF  GUIANA  GREAT  TINAMOU  260 

84.  NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  GUIANA  GREAT  TINAMOU  262 

85.  PATCHES  OF  BETE  ROUGE  ON  HEAD  OF  GREAT  TINAMOU  264 

86.  EGG  OF  PILEATED  TINAMOU  266 

87.  EGG  OF  VARIEGATED  TINAMOU  270 

88.  THE  OPEN  CLEARING  OF  KALACOON  COMPOUND  272 

89.  FAWN  OF  SMALL  GREY  DEER  274 

90.  YOUNG  CAICA  PARROTS  275 

91.  CASHEW  TREES  NEAR  KALACOON  276 

92.  GIANT  MARINE  TOAD  278 

93.  CATERPILLAR  OF  SPHINX  MOTH  280 

94.  MOLE  CRICKET  AND  YOUNG  281 

95.  TUBFUL  OF  NEWLY-HATCHED  ALLIGATORS  284 

96.  YOUNG  ALLIGATORS  MOUNTED  FOR  SALE  286 

97.  GUIANA  ALLIGATORS  ONE  DAY  OLD  288 

98.  DlASTATAXY  OF  THE  WlNG  OF  THE  YoUNG  JACANA 298 

99.  CLAWS    OF    THREE-DAY-OLD    JACANA    CHICK,    SHOWING 

CURVATURE  302 

100.  CHART  OF  RELATIONSHIP  BETWEEN  LEG,  BODY  AND 

WING  OF  THE  GROWING  JACANA  304 

101.  DIAGRAM_  ONTOGENETIC  VARIATIONS,  WING  OF  JACANA  306 
"      102.  ANI    EMBRYO,    SHOWING    PIGMENTATION    OF    FEMORAL 

TRACT    308 

103.  PTERYLOSIS  OF  ANI  309 

"      104.  WING  KNOBS  OF  THE  ANI  310 

"      105.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  THIRD  DIGIT  OF  THE  ANI  312 

"      106.  DIAGRAM,  ONTOGENETIC  VARIATIONS  OF  WING  IN  ANI  316 

"      107.  OSSIFICATION  OF  THE  TIBIO-TARSUS  OF  THE  ANI  318 

108.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  BILL  OF  THE  ANI  *'  320 

"      109.  EMBRYO  OF  THE  DUSKY  NIGHTHAWK  322 

"      110.  PTERYLOSIS  OF  HEAD  OF  EMBRYO  DUSKY  NIGHTHAWK  323 

"      111.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  BILL  OF  THE  DUSKY  NIGHTHAWK 324 

112.  GREY-BREASTED  MARTIN  THREE  DAYS  OLD  332 

113.  NESTING  Box  OF  THE  GREY-BREASTED  MARTIN  334 

114.  DIAGRAM  OF  WING  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  HOATZIN 343 

"      115.  DIAGRAM  OF  WING  DEVELOPMENT  OF  TRUMPETER 344 


XX  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fig.   116.     DIAGRAM,   WING   DEVELOPMENT   OF    BLACK-NECKED 

TOUCAN    348 

"      117.     DIAGRAM,  WING  DEVELOPMENT  OF  AMERICAN  CATBIRD  349 

"      118.     DIAGRAM  OF  HAND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  HOATZIN 354 

"      119.     DIAGRAM,  HAND  DEVELOPMENT   OF   GUIANA  KISKADEE  355 
"      120.     DIAGRAM,  HAND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  BLACK-NECKED 

TOUCAN     356 

"      121.     DIAGRAM,     HAND     DEVELOPMENT    OF     GREY-BREASTED 

MARTIN  357 

"      122.     HEAD  OF  THE  PERAI  360 

"      123.     THE  PERAI  '. 362 

124.  CHART  OF  RAINFALL  AS  CORRELATED  WITH  THE  NEST- 

ING OF  WASPS  AND  BEES  IN  BARTICA  DISTRICT 372 

125.  LIFE  HISTORIES  OF  BARTICA  WASPS.  Color  Plate,  facing     376 
"      126.     BUFF  EUMENES  RESTING  ON  HER  NEST  378 

127.  DETAILED  VIEWS  OF  EARTHEN  JUGS  MADE  BY  THE  RED 

EUMENES  380 

128.  NEST   OF   BUFF    EUMENES,   SHOWING   FINISHED    CELLS 

AND  ONE  OPEN  FOR  STORING  382 

129.  JUGS  OF   RED   EUMENES  OPENED  TO   SHOW   CONTENTS     384 

130.  ROACH-KILLER  SHOWING  GRADUAL  TRANSFORMATION 

OF  LARVA  TO  PUPA  388 

131.  PUPA  OF  THE  ROACH-KILLER  JUST  AFTER  THE  TRANS- 

FORMATION FROM  THE  LARVA  388 

"      132.     BLACK  REED  WASP  395 

133.  LIFE  HISTORIES  OF  BARTICA  WASPS.    Color  Plate,  facing  401 

134.  COCOON  OF  WHITE-FOOTED  WASP,  SHOWING  ITS  ELAB- 

ORATE CONSTRUCTION  406 

"      135.     THE  FOREST  SHELL  WASP  408 

136.  ONE-BANDED  DAUBER  416 

137.  BLUE  HUNTRESS  AT  HER  NEST  426 

138.  SPIDER  REMOVED  FROM  CELL  OF  THE  BLUE  HUNTRESS 

SHOWING  EGG  IN  POSITION  ON  VICTIM'S  ABDOMEN     428 

139.  CELL  OF  THE  BLUE  HUNTRESS,  OPENED  TO  SHOW 

COCOON  432 

140.  PUPA  OF  THE  BLUE  HUNTRESS  SHOWING  FOLDED  LEGS 

AND  ABDOMINAL  BUTTRESSES,  WHICH  PREVENT  IN- 
JURY  AGAINST   THE    SlDES   OF   THE    COCOON    434 

141.  VERMILLION  NUT  OPENED  TO  SHOW  IMPRISONED  LAR- 

VAE OF  VERMILLION  NUT  FLY  446 

142.  THE  HINTERLAND  OF  BRITISH  GUIANA  LYING  ON  THE 

UPPER    RAPO-NUNNI    RIVER.      (Map)  452 

143.  CALADIUM   BEENAS  OR   INDIAN   CHARMS.     Color   Plate, 

facing    488 


V 


PART  I 

(General) 

NARRATIVE   AND  ECOLOGICAL 
BY  WILLIAM  BEEBE 

DIRECTING    CURATOR 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   ESTABLISHMENT    OF   THE    TROPICAL    RESEARCH    STATION 

Within  one  month  after  our  party  left  New  York  City 
the  Tropical  Research  Station  of  the  New  York  Zoological 
Society  became  an  established  fact,  and  the  succeeding  sea- 
son's results  proved  the  wisdom  and  success  of  the  under- 
taking. As  in  all  types  of  exploration  the  dominant  factor 
in  this  work  was  uncertainty;  the  impossibility  of  knowing 
what  each  day  would  reveal  of  error  or  achievement.  But 
our  own  single-mindedness  of  purpose  combined  with  the 
unanimous  good-will  and  sympathy  of  the  people  of  Guiana 
left  no  doubt  of  ultimate  success. 

The  most  difficult  thing  throughout  was  to  resist  the 
lure  of  many  openings  and  invitations  which  seemed  to  offer 
opportunities  almost  equal  to  the  conception  with  which  I 
had  set  out.  Grenada  embodied  one's  ideal  of  a  tropical 
island,  and  when  a  short  walk  revealed  rhinoceros  beetles 
and  hummingbirds'  nests  and  an  abundance  of  strange  birds, 
it  seemed  well  worth  while  to  spend  a  month  there.  Trinidad 
was  still  more  of  a  temptation.  Here  were  zoologists — most 
hospitable  and  as  full  of  the  joy  of  scientific  work  as  our- 
selves, and  here  was  a  great  island  which  I  knew  from  for- 
mer experience  to  be  teeming  from  sea-beach  to  mountain 
top,  with  interesting  forms  of  life.  But  after  all,  it  was  an 
island,  and  the  headlands  of  Venezuela  were  in  sight. 

My  ambition  for  the  Zoological  Society's  Station  was 
to  have  a  continent  to  draw  upon.  So  with  real  regret 
we  continued  our  voyage  and  reached  Georgetown.  The 
big  kiskadees  shouted  welcome  from  the  unlovely  corrugated 
roofs  of  the  stellings,  just  as  they  had  seven  years  before. 
And  during  all  this  time  the  Botanical  Gardens  had  lost  no 


24  TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIG.  1.    MAP  OF  COASTAL  BRITISH  GUIANA 

whit  of  beauty,  nor  the  people  aught  of  their  whole-souled 
sympathy  and  generous  hospitality. 

We  found  a  house  and  servants  awaiting  us,  and  here 
we  made  our  headquarters.  We  began  work  in  the  Gardens, 
but  soon  found  that  this  and  the  surrounding  country,  how- 
ever well  adapted  to  certain  forms  of  life  and  to  sugar  plan- 
tations, offered  too  limited  a  field  for  our  investigation.  I 
undertook  a  series  of  short  trips  in  various  directions,  radiat- 
ing from  Georgetown  as  fingers  radiate  from  the  palm  of  a 
hand.  And  again  came  the  temptation  to  select  one  place 
or  another  as  being  almost  all  we  could  desire.  We  found 
interesting  Indian  villages  up  the  Demerara  with  good  sec- 
ondgrowth  jungle  close  at  hand;  far  beyond  the  Essequibo 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  STATION 


25 


Photo  by  W.  B. 


FIG.  2.    STREET  IN  GEORGETOWN 


River  we  motored  to  the  end  of  the  Pomeroon  Trail,  where 
great  moras  and  kakarallis  towered  overhead,  and  we  were 
almost  persuaded.  Then  one  day,  in  a  down-pour  of  rain 
I  followed  an  old  river  trip  of  mine,  made  years  ago,  up  the 
Essequibo  to  Bartica.  Here  I  knew  at  last  that  the  Station 
would  find  a  worthy  home  at  least  for  this  season.  I  re- 
turned at  once,  purchased  a  houseful  of  furnishings,  and 
without  a  moment's  delay  we  packed  up  again  and  trekked 
inland.  So  swiftly  did  we  work,  that  even  in  this  slow  mov- 
ing tropic  land  we  were  able  in  three  day's  time  to  entertain 
our  first  guests,  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Theodore  Roosevelt  and 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Withers. 

To  make  our  manners  properly  to  all  those  who  have 
aided  us  would  be  equivalent  almost  to  a  roster  of  the  inhabi- 


26 


TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  bij  If.  li. 


FIG.  3.    VICTORIA  REGIA  IN  BOTANICAL  GARDEN 
TRENCH,  GEORGETOWN 


tants  of  Georgetown.  I  cannot  refrain  from  mentioning 
the  names  of  the  Governor,  Sir  Walter  and  Lady  Egerton, 
Hon.  and  Mrs.  Cecil  dementi,  Hon.  J.  J.  Niman,  Prof. 
Harrison,  Mr.  Rodway,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hayes  and  Mr.  Cun- 
ningham in  Georgetown,  Mr.  Beckett  in  Berbice  and  Mr. 
Frere  and  Mr.  Withers  in  the  vicinity  of  Kalacoon.  To  Mr. 
Withers,  through  Robert  Simpson,  President  of  the  Bartica 
Agricultural  Estates,  we  are  indebted  for  Kalacoon  itself, 
on  the  Hills  rubber  estate,  rent-free.  For  this  and  a  score 
of  other  kindnesses,  words  fail  to  express  adequate  apprecia- 
tion. We  prefer  to  feel  that  the  gift  is  one  to  science,  which 
we,  the  benefiters,  can  repay  only  by  the  hardest,  most  sin- 
cere work  of  investigation,  of  which  we  are  capable. 

Kalacoon  is  a  very  large,  two-storied  house,  built  on  a 
rather  abrupt  hill,  some  two  hundred  feet  above  the  Maza- 
runi  River.  The  laboratory  room  alone,  on  pillars  fifteen 
feet  above  the  ground,  was  thirty  by  sixty  feet  with  sixteen 
windows.  Two  miles  below  the  house  the  Mazaruni  entered 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  STATION 


27 


the  equally  large  Essequibo,  while  the  mouth  of  the  Cuyuni 
River  was  the  same  distance  above.  All  three  rivers  were 
visible,  together  with  nine  islands.  To  the  East  lay  the  rub- 
ber plantation  of  Mr.  Withers,  and  across  the  river  the  tiny 
group  of  compact,  attractive  buildings  of  the  Government 
Rest  House  and  the  Penal  Settlement.  Beyond  these  and 
toward  all  other  points  of  the  compass  solid  jungle  covered 
the  rolling  hills. 

Xo  more  central  spot  could  be  found,  nor  one  more 
delicately  balanced  between  the  absolute  primitive  wilder- 
ness and  those  comforts  of  civilization  which  mean  continual 
health  and  the  ability  to  use  body  and  brain  to  the  utmost. 
Three  times  a  week  a  little  steamer  brought  ice,  fresh  vege- 
tables and  mail.  Georgetown  could  be  reached  in  five  min- 
utes by  telegraph  and  New  York  half  an  hour  later  by 


Photo  by  W.  B. 


FIG.  4.    KALACOON  HOUSE 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  STATION  29 

cable,  while  the  steamer  trip  to  Georgetown  occupied  only 
seven  hours.  Yet  no  one  passed  us,  save  an  occasional 
government  official,  or  a  dug-out  of  negro  gold-diggers 
or  diamond  seekers,  or  the  wood-skin  of  an  Indian. 
Throughout  all  the  months  our  Indian  hunter  found  an 
abundance  of  meat  for  the  table  within  a  mile  or  two  of  the 
house,  and  I  was  one  day  charged  by  a  jaguar  only  a  few 
hundred  yards  away.  I  shall  reserve  for  other  articles  an 
account  of  the  more  common  creatures  which  surrounded  us ; 
but  these  few  facts  emphasize  the  extremes  of  life  at  Kala- 
coon.  The  shortest  walk  often  furnished  material  for  days 
of  research.  For  longer  expeditions  we  had  launches  at  our 
disposal,  for  ascending  the  rivers  to  ^the  rapids  and  falls, 
while  Mr.  Wither's  Ford  car  climbed  the  most  impossible 
hills  and  found  its  way  along  trails  which  otherwise  were 
traversed  only  by  naked  Akawai  and  Carib  Indian  hunters. 

For  those  who  think  of  the  tropics  as  a  place  of  con- 
stant danger  and  disease,  I  may  say  that  mosquitoes  and 
flies,  malaria  and  other  fevers  were  absent.  A  cool  breeze 
blew  most  of  the  day,  the  temperature  varying  from  68  to 
93  degrees.  At  night  a  heavy  blanket  was  a  necessity.  A 
few  poisonous  snakes  were  found,  but  only  after  prolonged 
searching.  A  lantern,  turned  low,  kept  away  the  vampires, 
and  while  bete  rouge  were  annoying,  they  were  easily  guard- 
ed against.  Under  such  conditions  it  was  possible  to  work 
hard  day  after  day,  month  after  month,  and  remain  un- 
poi soned,  unbitten  and  in  good  health. 

The  one  terrible  disadvantage,  the  one  thing  which  no 
planning,  or  finance  or  forethought  could  alter  was  the  piti- 
fully inadequate  ability  of  each  of  our  human  brains  tp  cope 
properly  with  a  tithe  of  the  specimens  which  accumulated,  or 
to  understand  and  translate  into  logical  explanation  more 
than  the  merest  fraction  of  the  mass  of  strange  facts  and 
phenomena  which  filled  our  minds  and  note-books. 


Photo  by  P.  O.  Jt. 
FIG.  6.    RUINS  OF  THE  OLD  DUTCH  FORT,  KYK-OVER-AL 


CHAPTER  II 

HISTORICAL  BARTICA 

Today  we  find  Georgetown  with  sixty-odd  thousand 
people,  with  trams  and  railroads  and  motor  cars;  with  doz- 
ens of  sugar  plantations  scattered  along  the  coastland,  em- 
ploying thousands  of  coolie  and  negro  laborers.  Two  score 
miles  of  river  travel  up  the  Essequibo  bring  us,  as  I  have 
said,  to  Kalacoon  House  near  Bartica,  from  which  we  see 
only  jungle,  save  for  the  small  Penal  Settlement,  a  bunga- 
low or  two  at  Katabo  Point,  the  Hills  rubber  plantation  and 
an  old  Dutch  arch-way  on  a  little  island.  But  this  ruined 
arch  of  bricks  is  reminiscent  of  very  different  times. 

When  Georgetown  was  unknown,  when  the  coast  of 
British  Guiana  was  only  one  great  swamp  and  marsh  in- 
habited by  cannibal  Caribs,  then  this  arch-way  echoed  to  the 
clank  of  old-fashioned  muskets  and  the  boom  of  flare- 
mouthed  cannon.  Commanding  the  junction  of  three  great 
rivers,  the  Dutch  chose  this  tiny  island,  built  a  fort  on  it 
and  named  it  Kyk-over-al,  and  like  Kalacoon  House  today, 
it  literally  "looked  over  all."  It  is  said  that  the  Dutch  when 
they  first  came,  found  traces  of  still  earlier  Spanish  occupa- 
tion of  this  islet.  If  true,  this  was  clear  evidence  of  the  visit 
of  Raleigh  or  some  of  his  lieutenants  in  their  search  for  the 
mysterious  El  Dorado.  The  succeeding  history  of  this  re- 
gion is  not  strictly  germain  to  the  purpose  of  this  volume, 
but  a  few  notes  on  the  vicissitudes  of  man's  occupation  are 
well  worthy  of  record. 

The  fort  on  the  island  was  built  by  the  Dutch  over 
three  hundred  years  ago,  in  1613,  but  during  the  succeed- 
ing few  years  we  know  little  of  what  happened,  except  that 
fifty-five  years  later  all  this  region  was  desolate,  whether 
due  to  the  attacks  of  Indians  we  shall  never  know.  In  1670 


32  TROPICAL   WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

Hendrik  Rol  took  charge  at  Kyk-over-al,  as  Governor,  Cap- 
tain, Storekeeper  and  Indian  Trader,  and  soon  there  were 
three  plantations  on  the  surrounding  points  of  land.  A 
visitor  to  one  of  these  reports  that  their  "reception  was  very 
cordial,  the  dinner  heing  perfect,  consisting  of  five  different 
kinds  of  roast  meat,  including  deer,  fowl,  duck,  turkey  and 
pigeons  besides  made  dishes  of  labba  and  waterhog.  The 
drinks  were  mum,  wine  and  brandy,  with  which  they  kept 
themselves  merry  until  the  evening  when  they  returned  to 
the  fort  full  and  jolly  (rol  en  zoet)  !  So  much  for  social 
life  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  in  this  region. 

In  the  year  1678  the  West  Indian  Company  of  Zeeland 
had  four  plantations,  Vryheid  on  the  present  site  of  Bartica, 
Duinenburg  and  Fortuin  near  Kalacoon  and  Poelwyck  on 
Caria  Island.  Succeeding  history  tells  of  a  constant  succes- 
sion of  petty  quarrels  and  bickerings  among  the  Dutch  them- 
selves, varied  by  periods  of  prosperity,  at  the  height  of  which 
they  were  usually  captured  and  plundered  by  French  and 
English  corsairs  or  pirates.  One  account  remains,  recorded 
by  Mr.  Rodway.  On  October  18,  1708,  a  French  privateer 
under  Captain  Anthony  Ferry,  with  three  vessels  and  three 
hundred  men,  came  to  Essequibo  for  the  purpose  of  plun- 
dering the  colony.  They  took  the  Brandwagt  (guardhouse) 
at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  which  was  garrisoned  by  only 
three  soldiers,  before  the  Commandeur  could  send  assistance. 
Immediately  on  the  report  of  the  arrival  of  the  enemy,  van 
der  Heyden  tried  his  best,  by  sending  a  few  soldiers  down 
the  river,  to  stop  their  progress,  but  the  Brandwagt  having 
been  already  captured,  the  soldiers  returned  to  Kyk-over-al. 
The  enemy  proceeded  up  the  river,  burning  a  few  Indian 
villages 'that  lay  on  the  banks,  and  came  to  Bartica  Point 
without  the  slightest  opposition.  Here  the  manager  of 
Plantation  Vryheid  tried  to  oppose  their  landing  with  the 
aid  of  his  slaves  and  what  friends  he  could  get  together  from 
the  immediate  neighborhood.  He  sent  to  the  Commandeur 
asking  for  help,  but  it  appears  that  van  der  Heyden  was 


HISTORICAL  BARTICA  33 

possessed  of  more  discretion  than  valor,  for  he  kept  within 
the  fort.  The  manager  of  Vryheid,  with  his  few  slaves  was 
quite  powerless  against  such  a  number  of  disciplined,  well- 
armed  men,  and  it  therefore  soon  followed  that  the  French 
were  masters  of  the  Point,  driving  away  its  defenders  with 
a  loss  on  their  part  of  two  killed  and  several  wounded.  Being 
now  landed,  Captain  Ferry  commenced  a  series  of  raids  on 
all  the  neighboring  plantations,  plundering  them  of  every- 
thing portable,  the  managers  and  planters  taking  refuge  in 
the  fort.  Here  everything  was  in  confusion,  the  Comman- 
deur  being  blamed  by  the  planters  for  allowing  their  estates 
to  be  plundered,  when  he  ought  to  have  gone  to  their  assist- 
ance. He  excused  himself  by  insisting  that  his  fifty  soldiers 
were  useless  against  such  an  enemy  while  it  was  his  duty  to 
defend  the  fort  and  so  prevent  the  loss  of  the  whole  colony. 
No  attempt  was  made  to  storm  Kyk-over-al,  but  Ferry  sent 
an  officer  under  a  flag  of  truce  to  demand  ransom,  with 
threats  that  if  it  were  not  paid  all  the  estates  would  be  burned 
and  destroyed.  To  preserve  the  Colony  the  Commandeur 
capitulated  and  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  enemy. 
Finally  Ferry  undertook  to  leave  the  Colony  unmolested 
on  a  payment  of  fifty  thousand  florins.  This  amount  was 
paid  in  slaves  at  three  hundred  florins  per  head,  meat  and 
other  provisions,  besides  one  thousand  pieces  of  eight  in  cash 
for  the  Captain  and  his  officers.  One  third  of  this  ransom 
had  to  be  paid  by  the  almost-ruined  owners  of  the  private 
estates,  while  the  remaining  two-thirds  was  settled  by  one 
hundred  and  twelve  of  the  Company's  slaves. 

With  the  realization  that  the  soil  of  the  interior  was 
not  nearly  as  well  suited  to  the  raising  of  sugar-cane  as  that 
of  the  coastal  lowlands,  there  began,  about  1721,  a  migra- 
tion toward  the  coast,  which  eventually  resulted  in  the  dyk- 
ing and  settlement  of  that  region  and  the  relinquishment 
of  all  the  interior  part  of  the  Colony.  The  last  authentic- 
note  of  this  period  of  man's  occupation  is  that  in  1764  Fort 
Kyk-over-al  was  partly  torn  down  to  furnish  hewn  stone 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIG.  7.     BARTICA   WITH  ITS  SINGLE  STREET 

for  the  sugar  mill  of  the  Plantation  Duinenburg — this  being 
of  interest  because  the  plantation  was  exactly  on  the  site 
of  the  present  Kalacoon  House. 

After  the  desertion  of  Kyk-over-al  and  Vryheid,  the 
jungle  closed  in  once  more,  and  for  more  than  one  hundred 
years  we  hear  nothing  further  of  this  part  of  the  country. 
Then  began  a  brief  religious  era,  and  in  1829  a  mission  sta- 
tion was  established  at  the  place  known  to  the  Indians  as 
Bartika  or  Red  Earth. 

I  offer  without  comment  a  seriously  written  paragraph 
from  a  volume  by  the  Rev.  W.  T.  Veness  on  "Ten  Years 
of  Mission  Life  in  British  Guiana."  It  is  written  of  the 
region  immediately  around  Bartica.  "The  sky  is  clear,  the 
air  exhilarating  and  balmy,  the  climate  delightfully  equable 
and  the  face  of  Nature  most  charming ;  but  what  a  catalogue 


HISTORICAL  BARTICA  35 

of  horrors  when  you  step  forth  to  make  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance within  the  beauties  so  lavishly  displayed  on  every  side. 
The  bete  rouge  almost  drives  you  to  distraction,  the  wood- 
tick  torments  you  horribly,  the  snakes  frighten  you  out  of 
your  life,  the  bat  will  hardly  allow  you  to  sleep  for  dread 
of  being  drained  of  your  life-blood,  and  the  chigoe  threatens 
you  with  a  prospect  of  amputation.  Such  are  some  of  the 
delights  of  a  life  in  the  wilds  of  Guiana.  Let  no  timid  man 
attempt  it." 

With  missionaries  who  could  believe  and  write  such  ab- 
surdities it  is  hardly  remarkable  that  im  Thurn,  visiting 
Bartica  in  1878,  writes  that  Bartica  Grove,  once  a  flourish- 
ing mission  station,  is  now  reduced  to  a  few  wooden  huts, 
used  as  stores,  a  church  recently  half  restored  from  a  most 
ruinous  condition,  a  few  small  living  houses  and  some  timber 
sheds.  These  latter,  he  adds,  are  picturesque  buildings,  con- 
sisting of  a  few  upright  posts  supporting  roofs  of 'withered 
palm  leaves.  Under  their  eaves  colonies  of  gigantic  green 
spiders,  as  large  as  thrushes'  eggs,  watch  their  webs,  undis- 
turbed from  year's  end  to  year's  end.  The  whole  sleepy, 
beautiful  village  lies  under  the  shade  of  an  avenue  of  large 
mango  trees.  From  this  avenue  the  view  riverward  is  of  an 
enormous  stretch  of  water ;  the  view  landward  is  of  a  tangled 
shrubbery  of  flowering  bushes,  from  which  rise  groups  of 
graceful  palms,  and  is  bounded  in  the  distance  by  the  edge 
of  the  forest.  The  ditches  and  paths  in  the  village  are  choked 
by  great  masses  of  maidenhair  ferns  and  silver-backed 
gymnograms. 

A  few  years  after  the  decadence  of  the  mission  station 
came  a  second  El  Dorado,  when  the  discovery  of  gold  and 
diamonds  up  the  Mazaruni  and  Cuyuni  rivers  brought  hosts 
of  blacks  and  bovianders.  The  only  changes  which  the  suc- 
ceeding two  score  years  have  wrought  in  im  Thurn's  de- 
scription of  Bartica,  are  an  increase  in  small  houses  to  ac- 
commodate the  several  hundred  inhabitants,  and  unlovely 
telegraph,  police  and  post  offices,  besides  a  stelling  for  the 


36  TROPICAL   WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


I'hoto  bit  II'.  11. 
FIG.  8.    GOLD-BOAT  LEAVING  BARTICA  FOR  THE  UPPER  MAZARUNI 

tiny  steamers  which  come  up  river  thrice  a  week.  It  is  still 
a  very  sleepy,  useless  village  and  a  very  attractive  one  to 
the  casual  observer. 

And  so  we  find  the  little  part  which  this  Bartica  dis- 
trict has  played  in  history  framed  in  gold,  beginning  with 


HISTORICAL  BARTICA  37 

the  El  Dorado  of  Raleigh  and  ending  today  with  the  hum- 
ble washing  pan  of  the  boviander.  Instead  of  boats  loaded 
with  gallant  courtiers  sweeping  upriver  to  sands  of  pure 
gold  and  rocks  fretted  with  precious  stones,  I  hear  from 
Kalacoon  House  the  chanty  of  the  black  paddlers,  and  soon 
around  Bartica  Point  comes  the  bargeful  of  gold-diggers, 
off  on  their  half  year's  journey,  happy  if  they  can  bring 
back  a  little  bagful  of  the  glittering  grains,  or  a  few  dozen 
dull  diamonds  in  the  rough. 

Standing  today  on  Kyk-over-al,  in  the  shadow  of  the 
old  brick  arch  hung  with  vines  and  draped  with  orchids,  we 
have  left  British  Guiana  as  the  world  knows  it,  far  behind 
us,  along  the  distant  sea-coast.  Facing  toward  the  great 
hinterland  we  know  that  nothing  but  jungle  lies  before,  with 
two  narrow  Indian  trails  as  the  only  means  of  entrance  to 
this  unexplored,  unmapped  region,  besides  the  alternative 
of  toilsome  paddling  against  swift  currents  and  laborious 
portages  around  innumerable  falls  and  rapids. 

Some  day,  motor  tracks  and  a  railroad  will  be  pushed 
inland,  fretting  this  region,  so  tiny  on  the  map  of  South 
America,  so  tremendous  when  one  stands  deep  hidden  in  its 
jungles.  Then  the  great  wealth  of  the  interior  of  British 
Guiana  will  become  apparent,  whether  it  be  to  forester,  min- 
er, lapidarist  or  planter,  or  like  ourselves,  to  mere  seekers 
after  truth  by  way  of  the  lives  of  beasts  and  birds  and  insects. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  NATURALISTS  OF  BARTICA  DISTRICT 

The  part  which  Bartica  district  has  played  in  science 
is  of  considerable  interest.  Humboldt,  Wallace  and  Bates 
left  Guiana  unexplored.  Watertori's  researches  were  con- 
fined to  the  lower  Demerara  River.  As  early  as  1776  seri- 
ous books  on  the  natural  history  of  British  Guiana  began 
to  appear,  but  like  Bancroft's  "Essay"  these  are  of  only 
casual  interest,  although  their  accounts  of  "torporific  eels" 
and  "woods  masters"  make  delightful  reading. 

On  September  25,  1835,  Robert  Schomburgk  arrived 
at  Essequibo  Point,  later  to  be  called  His  Majesty's  Penal 
Settlement,  and  spent  about  ten  days  collecting  botanical 
specimens,  and  preparing  for  his  long  expedition  up  country. 
During  the  next  decade  both  he  and  his  brother  touched 
occasionally  at  Bartica.  Richard  Schomburgk  in  the  first 
volume  of  his  "Reisen  in  Britisch-Guiana"  tells  of  a  short 
sojourn  at  Bartika-Grove  in  1841,  and  of  the  capture  'of 
a  sloth  with  its  young  on  the  neighboring  island  of  Xaiku- 
ripa  or  Keow  Island  as  it  is  now  called.  Nineteen  months 
later  he  returned  to  Bartika,  where  he  captured  a  beautiful 
green  whip  snake  Dryophis  catesbyi,  and  noted  that  the 
Penal  Settlement  had  been  established. 

In  volume  III  of  this  same  work,  Schomburgk  gives 
a  list  of  Mikroskopischcs  Leben  as  found  at  Bartica  in  suc- 
cessive layers  of  soil  uncovered  in  a  seven-foot  hole.  *  The 
remaining  groups  which  he  treats  in  these  volumes,  mol- 
lusca,  insects,  birds,  mammals  and  plants,  are  identified  only 
with  general  regions  or  physical  zones,  and  with  no  more 

1  These  are  Polyffafttrica — OaUioneUn  distorts 

Phytolitharia — Amphidiscus  rotelln 

Lithasteriscus  tuberculatus  Sponyolithis  fistnlosa 

Lithonti/lidium   clavatum  8pongolithis  foramino.w 

Lithosti/lidhnu   mutilatnm  SpongoUthi*  fustis 

SpongoUthis  acicularis  Spongolithis  obtusa 


NATURALISTS  OF  BARTICA  39 

exact  indication  of  their  distribution.  His  list  of  birds  num- 
bers 418  species. 

In  1837  William  Hilhouse  made  a  trip  up  the  Cuyuni 
in  search  of  orchids,  and  writes:  "I  reached  Calicoon  Creek 
in  the  Massaroony  River  on  the  first  of  March,  and  had  to 
return  to  town  for  craft  and  supplies,  as  I  found  literally  the 
whole  population  without  bread." 

A  naturalist  and  botanist  who  was  intimately  associ- 
ated with  this  particular  region  was  Carl  Ferdinand  fVppun, 
who  spent  twenty-three  years  in  Venezuela  and  Guiana, 
being  sent  out  by  King  Frederick  Wilhelm  IV  of  Prussia 
on  the  recommendation  of  the  great  Humboldt.  The  sum- 
mary of  his  many  years  of  travel  in  British  Guiana  is  given 
in  the  second  volume  of  his  "Unter  den  Tropen."  This  is 
a  conscientiously  but  stolidly  written  work,  with  a  few  quaint 
but  charming  illustrations  from  pencil  by  the  author.  Two 
of  the  originals  are  in  the  Georgetown  Museum.  The  sec- 
ond chapter  of  this  volume  is  devoted  to  his  excursions  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  Penal  Settlement  and  Bartica.  He  spent 
two  years  there,  1857  and  1859,  but  his  fifty  pages  of  obser- 
vations could  quite  easily  have  been  made  in  a  month's  time. 
Fourteen  years  later  we  find  the  following  pathetic  entries 
in  his  journal,  written  when  at  Kaiateur  Falls  and  repro- 
duced in  the  Royal  Gazette  at  Georgetown. 

June  15 — Returned  to  Hymyyeug.  We  were  not  re- 
ceived very  pleasantly,  the  old  Pankoo  seemed  to  be  quite 
disappointed  that  we  were  not  killed  during  our  expedition 
to  the  top  of  the  fall.  The  Indians  have  a  suspicion  that 
we  are  looking  for  gold;  an  old  tradition  of  the  Indians  of 
British  Guiana  is,  that  when  the  white  man  digs  for  gold 
in  their  territory,  the  Indian  race  will  be  destroyed  forever. 
Commenced  to  paint  the  view  of  the  upper  fall. 

June  16 — Painted  on  the  picture;,  a  general  consulta- 
tion among  the  Indians  about  our  looking  for  gold. 

Monday,  17 — Painted  the  whole  day,  no  sleep  during 
the  night. 


40  TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  l>y  TV.  71. 


FIG.  9.     PENAL  SETTLEMENT   FROM   KALACOON 


Tuesday,  18 — Painted  the  lower  part  of  the  picture, 
chiefly  the  forest.  Received  a  large  Trigonocephalus  atrox. 
The  Accawai  Edward  building  a  hut  near  us.  How  long 
we  shall  live,  God  knows,  our  end  is  near. 

Wednesday,  19 — Painted  all  day  and  spent  a  miser- 
able day.  We  have  no  way  of  escape,  as  we  have  no  coria) 
or  boat  of  any  kind. 

Thursday,  20 — Painted  and  nearly  finished  the  view 
of  the  upper  part  of  the  Kaiateur  falls,  seeing  no  way  of 
escape,  I  am  determined  to  meet  my  fate. 

June  21 — The  last  day  of  my  life!  This  night  all  will 
be  over.  They  come!  I  take  poison." 

Although  frightfully  burned  with  carbolic  acid,  his 
companion  brought  Dr.  Appun  down  river  to  the  Penal 
Settlement,  where  he  died  after  two  days.  His  fears  of  the 


NATURALISTS  OF  BARTICA  41 

Indians  were  only  partly  real,  most  of  the  danger  being 
purely  imaginary. 

Lloyd,  an  amateur  naturalist,  who  has  written  pleas- 
antly in  Timehri,  lived  for  some  time  at  Kalacoon,  and  im 
Thurn  in  his  "Among  the  Indians  of  Guiana"  gives  the 
excellent  pen  picture  of  Bartica  Grove,  written  on  the  oc- 
casion of  his  visit  in  1878,  which  I  have  already  reproduced. 

Henry  Whitely,  an  English  collector  of  bird  skins, 
spent  some  time  between  the  years  1879  and  1884  at  Bartica 
Grove  and  there  collected  two  hundred  and  fifty-four  spe- 
cies. His  complete  British  Guiana  collections  combined 
with  these  of  Schomburgk  number  616  forms.  These  are 
enumerated  in  the  various  volumes  of  the  British  Museum 
Catalogue  of  Birds,  and  in  several  articles  by  Osbert  Salvin 
published  in  the  Ibis  for  1884.  Whitely  is  the  only  bird 
collector  who  has  done  any  extensive  work  in  this  vicinity. 

In  1909  I  paid  a  visit  to  this  region  and  ascended  the 
Cuyuni  and  the  Aremu  Rivers,  and  subsequently  published 
my  observations  on  the  fauna  in  book  form,  "Our  Search 
for  a  Wilderness."  Carl  Eigenmann  in  his  recent  technical 
volume  on  the  "Fresh-water  Fishes  of  British  Guiana"  re- 
marks on  page  30,  that  "a  series  of  collections  in  fresh  water 
was  made  at  sea-level  ....  Wismer,  Malali  and  Bartica." 
He  himself  did  not  visit  the  latter  place,  and  the  only  other 
note  is  a  list  of  thirty-three  species  recorded  from  Bartica. 1 

1  Callophysus  macropterus  Moenkhausia  lepidurus 

Pimelodus  clarias  Creatochanes  affinis 

Hemidoras  carinatus  Creatochanes  candomactilatus 

Trarhycorystes    obscurus  Astyanax  essequibensis 

Loricariisthys  griseus  Holobrycon  pesu 

Bivihranchia  protractila  Chalcinus  rotundatus 

Anisitsia  notata  Metynnis  hypsauchen 

Anostomus  plicatus  Myloplus  pacu 

Leporinus  nigrotoeniatus  Myloplus  rubripinnis 

LeporinuR  friderici  Myloplus  rhomboidalis 

Leporinus  maculatus  Serrasalmo  rhombeus 

Leporinus  alternus  Stolephorus  guianensis 

Leporinus  fasciatus  Stolephorus  suranamensis 

Tetragonopterus  chalceus  Pachypops  furcroeus 

Moenkhausia  grandisquamis  Geophagus  surinamensis 

Moenkhausia  shideleri  Crenicichla  lugubris 
Colomesus  psittacus 


42  TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

The  fish  fauna  of  the  Mazaruni  and  the  Cuyuni  Rivers  has 
never  been  investigated. 

A  boviander  who  worked  for  me,  Robert  Cozier,  col- 
lected skins  in  this  vicinity  for  Mr.  James  McConnell.  An 
annotated  list  of  the  skins  in  this  gentleman's  collections 
is  being  at  present  published,  under  the  editorship  of  Charles 
Chubb.  The  first  volume  of  the  "Birds  of  British  Guiana" 
has  already  appeared.  From  the  Tinamous  to  the  Wood- 
peckers inclusive,  three  hundred  and  forty-nine  forms  are 
recognized. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   GENERAL   FIELD    OF    WORK 

In  central  British  Guiana,  about  forty  miles  from  the 
coast,  the  Essequibo  river  receives  its  mightiest  tributary — 
the  Mazaruni,  coming  in  obliquely  from  the  west.  At  the 
apex  of  the  peninsula  formed  by  this  junction  is  the  village 
of  Bartica.  Its  chief  reason  for  existence  is  as  a  rendezvous 
for  black  gold  and  diamond  miners,  who  here  fit  out  and 
here  return  from  the  hinterland  of  the  Mazaruni  and  the 
Cuyuni  rivers.  Aside  from  this  the  village  is  negligible  and 
interests  us  only  in  name. 

Within  three  miles  of  Bartica  is  a  lime  plantation  and 
another  of  rubber,  the  latter,  the  Hills  Estate,  operated 
by  G.  B.  Withers.  On  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Mazaruni 
is  the  Penal  Settlement  and  a  government  Colony  House. 
A  mile  upstream  is  Katabo  Point  at  the  junction  of  the 
Mazaruni  and  Cuyuni  rivers.  Here  is  located  the  supply 
bungalow  of  the  Peters  Mine  Company.  Except  for  occa- 
sional Indian  and  Boviander  clearings  this  constitutes  the 
human  occupancy  of  the  region.  All  else  is  untouched  jun- 
gle or  "high  bush."  The  needs  of  this  tiny  community  are 
catered  to  by  a  little  steamer  which  makes  three  trips  each 
week  between  Georgetown  and  Bartica.  Our  Research 
Station  was  situated  at  Kalacoon  House,  a  recent  addition 
to  the  Hills  Estate.  This  is  two  and  a  half  miles  south-west 
of  Bartica,  on  a  two  hundred-foot  hill  overlooking  the  Maza- 
runi River. 

With  the  exception  of  occasional  trips  to  the  first  falls 
of  the  Mazaruni  and  Cuyuni  rivers,  across  to  the  Penal 
Settlement  and  down  to  Keow  Island,  all  our  work  during 
1916  was  done  within  two  miles  of  Kalacoon  House.  In 
fact,  one-half  square  mile  of  the  jungle  south  of  the  Station 


GENERAL  FIELD  OF  WORK  45 

would  cover  the  area  of  four-fifths  of  our  researches.  And 
now  at  the  end  of  our  stay,  as  we  look  back  over  the  results 
of  this  new  experiment  in  tropical  scientific  work,  we  realize 
that  with  all  our  efforts  we  have  made  only  the  merest  be- 
ginning, and  that  many  men  could  spend  their  lives  in  prof- 
itable research  at  this  spot. 

Kalacoon  House  faces  the  junction  of  three  mighty 
rivers,  hundreds  of  miles  from  their  sources  in  the  highlands 
of  Venezuela  and  Brazil;  at  our  back  door  begins  a  jungle 
through  which  one  might  wander  as  far  as  San  Francisco 
from  New  York  without  meeting  a  human  being.  Our 
province  in  general  is  a  colony  less  in  size  than  Colorado, 
and  our  chosen  plot  for  research  is  of  equal  area  with  Cen- 
tral Park  in  New  York  City. 

The  geology  of  Bartica  district  is  not  of  great  interest. 
Indeed,  looking  at  the  panorama  encircling  Kalacoon  House, 
one  is  unconscious  of  any  evidence  of  earthly  inorganic 
structure;  vegetation  fills  the  landscape.  We  have  passed 
the  low,  marshy  alluvial  coastal  zone,  and  have  not  yet 
reached  the  mountainous  hinterland.  Here  we  have  rolling 
hills  covered  with  dense  high  jungle,  trisected  by  the  navi- 
gable waters  of  the  three  great  rivers,  and  veined  with  many 
small  creeks.  When  we  come  to  examine  the  rocks  which 
here  and  there  protrude  through  the  foliage  or  become  visible 
at  low  water,  we  find  that  the  general  aspect  of  the  skeleton 
of  the  country  is  not  unlike  that  around  New  York  City. 

At  low  tide,  bare  rocks  are  visible  almost  in  mid-stream, 
stretching  directly  across  the  bottom  and  several  miles  up 
the  river,  where  this  great  belt  of  grey  granite  here  and 
there  breaks  through  the  evergreen  mass  of  vegetation. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  recent  of  the  basal  igneous  rocks  of 
the  colony.  No  fossils  are  found  anywhere,  even  in  the 
sandstone  farther  down  river.  The  rocky  islets  off  Bartica 
are  a  dark  hornblende-schist.  This  completes  the  tale  of 
the  stone,  except  for  an  interesting  vein  of  quartz  extending 
across  a  tiny  stream  near  Kalacoon,  which  has  been  found 


46  TROPICAL   WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIG.  11.    MAP  OF  THE  GENERAL  FIELD  OF  WORK  IN  BARTICA  DISTRICT 

auriferous,  carrying  about  thirty-six  grains  of  gold  to  the 
ton.  Meagre  as  is  this  percentage,  it  is  exciting  to  a  passing 
naturalist  and  tempts  one  always  to  pick  up  a  bit  of  the 


GENERAL  FIELD   OF  WORK 


Photo  by  W.  B. 
FIG.  12.     OUTCROPPING  OF   AURIFEROUS   QUARTZ   NEAR   KALACOON 

glistening  stone  in  hopes  of  a  nugget.  The  pay  dirts  are 
farther  up  river,  where  good  gold  deposits  and  diamonds 
are  occasionally  found  in  close  proximity. 

The  surface  soil  in  the  jungle  is  of  course  the  usual 
black  vegetable  mould,  but  the  sub-soils  are  clayey  and  sandy 
in  character.  It  is  surprising  to  see  how  close  together  the 
two  may  be  found.  A  pit  dug  in  one  spot  will  show  red 
and  yellow  clay,  and  be  quite  water-tight,  filling  up  with 
the  first  rain,  while  ten  feet  away  the  spade  will  throw  up 
almost  pure  white  sand,  fine  and  porous,  which  proves  a 
veritable  sieve.  The  clays  and  gravels  are  quite  sedentary, 
the  result  of  intense  leaching  of  decomposed  rocks  by  the 
rain  and  the  acid  soil  waters  of  these  jungles.  The  origin 
of  the  white  sand  is  a  moot  question,  excellent  authorities 
being  quite  divided  in  their  explanation.  One  theory  and 


GENERAL  FIELD  OF  WORK  49 

probably  the  correct  one,  is  that  it  is  wholly  sedentary  like 
the  clays  and  gravels.  What  would  seem  more  reasonable 
to  an  ungeological  observer  is  the  theory  that  this  series  of 
great  successive  sand  dunes  is  a  relic  of  ancient  seashores, 
although  close  search  yields  no  trace  of  seashell  or  coral. 
And  this  we  may  note  as  the  first  of  a  host  of  deceptions 
practiced  upon  us  by  the  tropical  elements  and  animals- — 
these  dunes  of  the  finest  of  white  sand  deep  hidden  within 
these  mighty  forests,  whose  grains  have  never  danced  at 
the  roar  of  pounding  breakers  nor  felt  the  slithering  rush 
of  salt  water.  Here  the  white  sand  lies  beneath  the  ebony 
mold  of  the  jungle,  undisturbed  except  when  flung  into  the 
light  by  the  wrenched-up  roots  of  a  falling  tree,  or  when 
scratched  up  by  armadillos,  or  patiently  borne  to  the  sur- 
face, grain  after  grain  by  indefatigable  ants. 

So  this  particular  region,  although  so  near  the  Atlan- 
tic coast  arid  so  distant  from  the  Andes,  in  ages  past  began 
as  volcanic  or  igneous  upthrusts  of  rock,  and  not  by  the 
gradual  accumulation  of  sediment  brought  down  by  rivers 
and  held  in  tenure  by  the  clutching  fingers  of  mangroves 
and  courida.  But  that  time  of  mineral  dominance  is  long 
past,  and  today  we  find  the  underlying  structure,  whatever 
it  is,  clothed  with  running  water  and  with  vegetation,  in  the 
shelter  of  which  animal  life  teems,  while  mankind  has  merely 
begun  to  paddle  painfully  along  the  rivers,  and  to  follow 
narrow  trails — molewise — through  the  jungle. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  OPEN   CLEARING  AND   SECONDGROWTH 

The  area  in  which  we  worked  during  six  months  of 
1916,  from  March  to  August  inclusive,  may  conveniently 
be  divided  into  two  very  distinct  zones; 

First,  the  Clearing  and  Secondgrowth. 
Second,  the  Jungle  itself. 

I  shall  give  a  brief  resume  of  the  general  ecology,  and 
the  significance  of  distribution  of  the  more  abundant  forms 
of  life  in  these  two  zones.  The  abrupt  transition  from  the 
Clearing  and  the  Secondgrowth  fauna  to  that  of  the  Jungle 
was  one  of  the  most  striking  phenomena  which  came  under 
our  observation. 

Eight  years  ago  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Research  Station, 
the  jungle  extended  quite  down  to  the  banks  of  the  Maza- 
runi.  Now,  for  the  distance  of  many  acres  along  the  shore, 
a  clearing  for  the  rubber  plantation  had  been  made.  Six 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  jungle  had  been  cut  and  burned 
and  planted  with  rubber  trees  which  were  just  beginning 
to  be  tapped.  Another  five  hundred  and  fifty  acres  were 
cleared  three  years  ago,  but  were  allowed  to  revert  to  second- 
growth  which  already  had  reached  a  height  of  twenty  feet 
and  more. 

These  two  are  the  areas  which  I  am  considering  to- 
gether as  open  clearing  and  Secondgrowth.  More  detailed 
study  would  reveal  still  finer  distinctions  or  subdivisions, 
such  as  grassy  fields,  open  swamp  lands,  the  course  of  a  swift- 
flowing  creek  and  the  banks  of  the  Mazaruni  itself.  I  in- 
clude within  this  zone  the  fauna  of  a  small  open  swamp  on 
Keow  Island  off  shore. 

In  the  heart  of  the  rubber  plantation  proper  was  the 
house  of  Mr.  Withers,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  Secondgrowth 


52  TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

stood  Kalacoon,  which,  as  I  have  said,  by  the  courtesy  of 
Mr.  Withers,  we  used  as  the  Research  Station.  The  pres- 
ence of  these  two  houses  has  had  considerable  effect  on  the 
fauna  of  the  immediate  neighborhood.  Through  the  rubber 
plantation  extended  several  roads,  and  a  wide  trail  made  by 
ourselves  ran  from  Kalacoon  straight  back  through  the  sec- 
ondgrowth  to  the  jungle.  It  was  along  these  that  much 
of  the  life  of  clearing  and  secondgrowth  was  observed. 

This  zone  began  then  at  the  banks  of  the  Mazaruni 
River  and  extended  back  for  about  one  mile.  Here,  visible 
from  almost  any  distance,  stood  the  jungle — a  great  cliff  of 
foliage  which  rose  sheer,  high  above  all  the  new  growth,  ma- 
jestic, sublime. 

Xot  a  moment  did  man  dare  rest  upon  his  labors.  Day 
and  night  without  cessation  the  jungle  sent  forth  upon  the 
wind,  or  with  the  aid  of  birds  and  other  agents,  untold 
myriads  of  spores  and  seeds  which  soon  sprouted  and  laid 
the  foundation  of  a  living  vegetable  talus,  a  stealthy  out- 
reaching  finger  which,  if  left  unheeded,  would  soon  have 
strengthened  into  a  hand,  whose  grip  was  not  to  be  broken 
without  much  toil,  by  hours  of  tiresome  labor  with  cutlass 
and  hoe. 

It  was  no  light  matter  to  attack  a  tropical  jungle  in 
its  full  might  and  power  and  to  hew  out  hill  after  hill  of 
open  agricultural  country.  One  by  one  the  great  giants 
were  felled — mora,  greenheart,  crabwood — each  crashing  its 
way  to  earth  after  centuries  of  slow  upward  growth.  The 
undergrowth  in  the  dark,  high  jungle  is  comparatively 
scanty.  Light-starved  and  fungus-plagued,  the  brush  and 
saplings  are  stunted  and  weak.  So  when  the  large  trees 
were  down  it  was  an  easy  matter  to  cut  out  the  thin  smaller 
growth.  The  great  stumps  were  left  standing  and  now  the 
erstwhile  jungle  showed  only  a  shambles  of  raw  wood  and 
shrivelled  foliage.  After  a  time  fire  was  applied,  and  quick- 
ly, as  in  the  case  of  resinous  trees,  or  with  long,  slow  smol- 


OPEN  CLEARING  AND  SECONDGROWTH  53 


Photo  by  W.  B. 


FIG.  15.     NEWLY  CLEARED  JUNGLE 


derings  of  half -rotted,  hollow  giants,  the  huge  boles  were 
consumed. 

For  a  period,  utter  desolation  reigned.  Charcoal  and 
grey  ash  covered  everything.  No  life  stirred.  Birds  had 
flown,  reptiles  and  insects  had  made  their  escape  or  suc- 
cumbed. Only  the  saffron-faced  vultures  swung  past,  on 
the  watch  for  some  half-charred  creature.  Almost  at  once, 
however,  the  marvellous  vitality  of  the  tropical  vegetation 
asserted  itself.  Phoenix-like,  from  the  very  heart  of  the 
ashes,  appeared  leaves  of  strange  shape  and  color.  Trees 
whose  tissues  seemed  wholly  turned  to  charcoal  sent  forth  ad- 
ventitious shoots,  and  splintered  boughs  blossomed  from 
their  wounds.  Now  was  the  lowest  ebb  of  the  jungle's  life 
and  the  Planter  took  instant  advantage.  All  the  half-burned 
debris  was  cleared  away  and  in  the  wonderfully  rich  soil 


54  TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH   GUIANA 

between  the  fallen  trunks  and  stumps,  he  planted  his  spind- 
ling rubber  yearlings. 

Not  for  a  moment  must  the  new  growing  tangle  be 
allowed  to  smother  these  tender  growths,  and  today  the 
coolies  scrape  the  ground  clean  at  frequent  intervals.  In 
the  course  of  time  the  rubber  will  dominate  all  other  growths, 
becoming  trees  in  reality  and  like  a  second  jungle  begin  to 
interlock  its  branches  high  overhead.  The  shade  which  it 
casts  makes  easier  the  labor  of  clearing,  and  this  tiny  scar — 
tiny  in  comparison  with  the  enormous  expanse  of  jungle 
round  about — comes  wholly  under  man's  dominion,  and  day 
by  day  yields  its  quota  of  merchandise  to  the  world's  marts. 
In  place  of  the  lofty  jungle  which  for  unnumbered  centuries 
covered  this  area,  we  have  orderly  ranks  upon  ranks  of  white- 
barked  rubber  trees,  radiating  park-like  over  the  rolling 
hills,  while  the  white  sandy  roads  wind  about  them,  having 
nothing  in  common  with  the  animal  and  Indian  trails  which 
such  a  short  time  ago,  zigzagged  over  this  very  ground. 

I  have  gone  thus  into  particulars  to  show  the  reason  for 
the  arising  of  a  fauna,  wholly  foreign  to  that  of  the  jungle, 
and  this  not  after  years  and  decades,  but  almost  at  once,  syn- 
chronously as  it  were,  with  the  change  of  vegetation ;  coming 
from  long  distances,  sometimes  singly,  sometimes  with  a 
sudden  rush  of  numbers. 

The  five  hundred  odd  acres  which,  after  being  cleared 
had  been  allowed  to  grow  up  undisturbed,  were  of  even 
greater  interest  to  the  naturalist  than  the  more  open  part 
of  the  clearing.  The  destruction  of  the  jungle  was  here 
also  complete  and  the  very  thorough  burning  had  evidently 
destroyed  all  jungle  seeds.  In  their  place  sprang  up  at 
once  a  maze  of  weeds,  vines  and  woody  shrubs,  reeds,  ferns 
and  grasses,  all  foreign  to  the  dark  jungle  and  whose  nearest 
congeners  were  miles  away.  Yet  here  were  their  seeds  and 
spores,  baffling  all  attempts  at  tracing  their  migration  or 
the  time  they  had  lain  dormant. 


OPEN  CLEARING  AND  SECONDGROWTH 


55 


Photo  by  W.  B. 


FIG.  16.     PURE  CULTURE  OF  NEW  GROWN  CECROPIAS 


The  meagre  data  I  was  able  to  gather  concerning  the 
succession  of  vegetable  growth  in  this  area  suggests  the  tre- 
mendously interesting  facts  which  a  trained  botanist  could 
record.  The  first  things  to  appear  were  grasses  or  grass- 


56  TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  &;/  W.  B. 
FIG.  17.    THICKET  OF  REEDS  GROWING  ON  CLEARED  JUNGLE  LAND 

like  plants  and  prostrate  vines.  These  latter  climbed  over 
the  fallen  tree-trunks  and  covered  the  charred  stumps  with 
a  glory  of  blossoms.  As  soon  as  semi-woody  shrubs  shot  up, 
the  vines  ascended  still  higher  and  by  their  rapid  growth 


OPEN  CLEARING  AND  SECONDGROWTH  57 


Photo  by  W.  B. 
FIG.  18.    FLOWERS  OF  THE  GUIANA  (ALLAMANDA) 

sometimes   covered  these   plants   with   alien  bloom,   before 
their  own  flowers  had  had  time  to  appear  and  develop. 

Soon,  however,  another  type  of  plant  appeared  with 
hollow  and  jointed  stems,  pushing  out  fans  of  fingered  leaves, 
swiftly,  wasting  no  time  in  branching,  but  content  with  a 
single  spike  piercing  up  through  strata  of  grass  and  reeds, 
through  shrubs  and  bushes  until  it  had  won  to  the  open  sky. 
This  was  the  cecropia  or  trumpet  tree,  falsely  appearing 
firm  and  solid  stemmed,  but  quite  dominant  during  the  first 
few  years  of  the  neglected  secondgrowth.  It  formed  a 
pure  culture  in  most  places,  crowding  out,  by  a  monopoly 
of  the  sunlight,  most  other  growth.  It  had  many  decided 
qualities,  some  visible  at  a  glance,  others  revealed  only  to 
those  who  became  intimate  with  it.  It  was  extremely  orna- 
mental and  provided  a  cool,  dense  shade.  Every  section  of 


58  TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  by  W.  B. 
FIG.  19.     THICKET  OF  SECONDGROWTH  OVERRUN  BY  A  TANGLE  OF  RAZOR  GRASS 


the  stem  was  a  sanctuary  for  scores  of  a  certain  species  of 
small  stinging  ant  which  rushed  out  when  the  stem  was  split 
with  a  cutlass.  The  leaves  in  turn  formed  the  favorite  diet 
of  sloths. 


OPEN  CLEARING  AND  SECONDGROWTH  59 

Differences  in  soil  which  were  not  apparent  when  the 
great  jungle  covered  everything,  now  became  of  much  im- 
portance and  gave  rise  to  very  distinct  zones  of  vegetation. 
We  found  high  sandy  spots  where  the  cecropias  did  not  get 
that  flying  start  which  they  needed  for  their  vertical  straight- 
away dash.  Here  a  community  of  hollow  reeds  or  bamboo 
grass  appeared  from  no  one  knows  where.  They  grew  and 
multiplied  until  their  stems  fairly  touched  one  another, 
forming  a  dense,  impenetrable  thicket  of  green,  silicious 
tubes  eight  to  twelve  feet  in  length.  These  were  smooth 
and  hard  as  glass  and  tapered  beautifully,  making  wonder- 
fully light  and  strong  arrows  with  which  the  Akawai  Indians 
shot  fish.  Wasps  of  sorts  searched  for  broken  tips  and  in- 
dustriously gathered  therein  hordes  of  delectable  spiders. 

Early  in  this  struggle,  white  convolvulus  blossoms 
gleamed  everywhere,  but  later,  pale  yellow  flowers  became 
dominant,  and  orchid-like,  violet  butterfly  peas  which,  at 
first,  blossomed  among  the  ashes  on  the  ground,  but  climbed 
as  soon  as  they  found  support.  Little  by  little  a  five-finger 
vine  flung  whole  chains  of  bloom  over  stumps,  logs  and 
bushes,  a  beautiful  blood-red  passion  flower,  whose  buds 
looked  like  strings  of  tiny  Chinese  lanterns. 

Whatever  the  character  of  the  new  vegetation,  whether 
a  tangle  of  various  shrubs,  a  grove  of  young  cecropias  or  a 
serried  phalanx  of  reeds,  the  terrible  razor-grass  ran  over 
all.  Gracefully  it  hung  in  emerald  loops  from  branch  to 
branch,  festooning  living  foliage  and  dead  stump  alike,  with 
masses  of  slender  blades.  It  appeared  soft  and  loose-hung 
as  if  one  could  brush  it  away  with  a  sweep  of  the  hand.  But 
it  was  the  most  punishing  of  all  growing  things,  insidiously 
cutting  to  the  bone  as  one  grasped  it,  and  binding  all  this 
new  growth  together  with  bands  more  efficient  than  steel. 
One  had  painfully  to  cut  every  yard  of  trail  in  order  to  pene- 
trate into  the  higher  parts  of  the  secondgrowth,  which  was 
infinitely  more  difficult  of  access  than  any  thorn  thicket  or 
tangle  of  bush  rope  in  the  jungle  itself. 


60  TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

With  the  destruction  of  the  jungle  went  its  animal  life. 
"No  voice  of  goldbird  or  woodhewer  rang  out,  no  heliconias 
fluttered  past,  no  accouri  or  monkey  fled  at  our  approach. 
One  day  a  small  ground  dove  swung  by,  circled  about  and 
alighted  on  a  dead  stub,  craning  its  neck  at  the  strange  sight, 
and  the  following  day  it  was  feeding  on  the  seeds  fallen  from 
a  weed  pile  which  the  coolie  workmen  had  left.  After  some 
such  inconspicuous  fashion  the  new  world  of  life  was  inau- 
gurated. How  the  word  was  passed  miles  down  river,  or  far 
off  to  other  clearings  we  shall  probably  never  know,  but 
doves,  tanagers,  grassfinches,  kingfishers,  rails,  orioles  and 
kiskadees  soon  gathered,  found  certain  definite  niches  for 
themselves  and  settled  down  permanently. 

If  we  had  had  time  and  strength  we  could  doubtless 
have  duplicated  the  evidences  of  this  peculiar  new  type  of 
fauna  in  every  group  of  the  animal  kingdom,  but  birds  were 
the  beings  which  we  studied  most  intensely.  Within  sight 
of  Kalacoon  House  we  noted  sixty-five  species  which  in  no 
sense  could  be  termed  jungle  birds.  They  were  never  ob- 
served within  the  jungle  and  with  very  few  exceptions  were 
recent  arrivals,  their  presence  being  coincident  with  and 
quite  dependent  on  the  clearing  and  secondgrowth. 

Kalacoon  House  itself  yielded  the  first  examples  of 
adaptation  to  new  conditions.  When  we  arrived  we  found 
a  small  colony  of  grey-breasted  martins  firmly  established. 
They  were  roosting  and  nesting  indoors,  gaining  admittance 
by  means  of  broken  window  panes,  and  several  of  the  shel- 
tered tops  of  posts  below  stairs  also  held  nests.  We  put 
up  a  bird  box  on  the  summit  of  a  pole  and  at  once  a  battle 
ensued  for  its  use,  the  successful  pair  breeding  immediately. 
In  a  single,  isolated  palm  tree  in  the  front  compound  were 
five  nests.  Four  were  of  successive  broods  of  moriche  ori- 
oles, the  fourth  being  still  in  use.  The  fifth  was  the  nest  of 
a  palm  tanager.  The  palm  and  blue  tanagers  were  almost 
as  domestic  as  the  martins,  flying  in  and  out  of  the  house 
all  day,  picking  spiders  from  the  beams  overhead. 


OPEN  CLEARING  AND  SECONDGROWTH  61 

The  bushes  at  the  edge  of  the  compound  teemed  with 
bird  life  all  foreign  to  the  jungle  at  our  back.  Whenever 
we  went  to  the  Hills  we  listened  to  the  jubilant,  rollicking- 
songs  of  the  Guiana  house  wrens,  but  these  were  never 
heard  at  Kalacoon.  This  was  the  case  for  several  weeks, 
but  one  morning  we  heard,  not  one,  but  several  birds  sing- 
ing at  once.  A  wave  of  wrens  had  overflowed  Kalacoon 
during  the  night,  and  now  in  the  early  morning  were  feed- 
ing, and  singing,  and  climbing  about  the  grass  stems  per- 
fectly at  home.  We  had  witnessed  the  arrival  of  a  new 
species,  old  birds  and  several  full-grown  young.  Within 
three  days  they  had  dispossessed  some  finches,  nest,  eggs 
and  all,  and  had  begun  nests  of  their  own. 

The  arrival  of  wrens  at  Kalacoon  was  an  event  slight 
in  itself,  but  which  seemed  to  me  full  of  significance,  when 
I  realized  that  in  such  fashion  birds  extend  their  ranges  over 
the  surface  of  the  earth.  It  was  quite  different  from  the 
small  flock  of  sandpipers  which  appeared  suddenly  along 
the  creek.  They  were  migrants,  here  today,  off  to  the  far 
north  tomorrow.  But  the  house  wrens  of  Guiana  are  per- 
manent residents,  and  once  they  have  taken  possession  in 
their  fierce  little  masterful  wren  fashion,  they  elect  to  remain 
until  the  traces  of  man's  labors  have  wholly  vanished.  Many 
years  ago  in  this  very  region  I  have  recorded *  how  these 
God-birds,  as  the  natives  call  them,  often  cling  to  a  deserted 
Indian  clearing  until  the  jungle  has  choked  it  from  existence. 
The  coming  of  the  wrens  truly  typified  the  advance  of  a 
species,  one  step  in  that  progress  which  has  peopled  every 
continent  with  its  thousands  of  species  of  birds. 

From  the  lofty  outlook  of  Kalacoon  compound  a  tre- 
mendous sweep  of  sky  was  visible,  and  it  was  very  seldom 
that  this  was  wholly  free  from  bird  life.  Most  of  these  aerial 
species  were  not  peculiar  to  the  clearing,  however,  but 
hawked  about  over  the  jungle  as  well,  and  probably  roosted 
somewhere  within  its  confines.  Exceptions  to  this  were  barn 

'Our  Search  for  a  Wilderness,  pp.  307-308. 


OPEN  CLEARING  AND  SECONDGROWTH  63 

swallows  and  purple  martins,  migrants  from  our  own  United 
States.  The  martins  vanished  early  in  March,  but  we  saw 
barn  swallows  until  mid-June.  The  brown  martins  were  a 
puzzle.  They  were  not  uncommon  in  early  March,  but  they 
vanished  with  the  purples  and  did  not  appear  again.  The 
swifts  and  kites  and  vultures — masters  of  all  the  air — were 
bound  by  no  question  of  mere  jungle  or  clearing.  They 
wandered  wherever  they  found  good  hunting. 

Along  the  edge  of  the  rubber  plantation,  between  it 
and  the  secondgrowth,  and  extending  on  each  side  of  the 
wide  sandy  roads,  was  a  large  area  which  was  overrun  by 
a  tall,  dry,  reed-like  grass,  about  three  feet  in  height.  This 
little  world  had  its  own  particular  forms  of  life  which  spent 
most  of  their  time  in  or  near  it.  I  can  speak  only  of  the 
bird  citizens,  which  numbered  nine  species.  Two  were  rails, 
the  white-necked  and  the  cayenne,  which  nested  in  the  heart 
of  the  dense  growth  or  scurried  along  the  road  ahead  of  us. 
The  remaining  birds  were  finches — all  tiny  grassbirds;  jet 
black  glossy  grass-quits,  the  black-headed  pygmy,  black  and 
white  and  chestnut-bellied  seedeaters,  and  the  two  little 
great-billed  finches  known  through  the  colony  as  twatwa  and 
twatwa  slave. 

Near  the  center  of  the  open  clearing  the  creek  spread 
out  in  a  wide  space  between  two  rolling  hills,  forming  a 
marsh,  and  here,  and  along  the  course  of  the  creek  itself 
lived  more  than  a  dozen  species,  attracted  and  held  there 
by  suitable  feeding  grounds,  either  fish  or  crayfish,  or  the 
worms  and  snails  which  hid  in  the  muddy  shallows.  Here, 
on  our  arrival,  were  four  migrant  waders,  Esquimo  curlew, 
yellowlegs,  solitary  and  spotted  sandpipers.  These  soon  left 
for  the  north,  although  the  latter  lingered  singly  and  in 
family  groups  for  many  weeks.  Of  native  marsh  birds  there 
were  cayenne  snipe,  spur-winged  jacanas,  Guiana  green  her- 
ons, little  boat-tailed  grackles,  red-breasted  blackbirds  and 
the  beautiful  white-shouldered  water  tyrants.  The  jacanas 
were  nesting  on  Keow  Island.  A  small  colony  of  seven  or 


PhOtO  by  1'.  (J.  II. 
FIG.  21.     JUNGLE  AT  THE  EDGE  OF  THE  SECONDGROWTH 


OPEN  CLEARING  AND  SECONDGROWTH  65 

eight  of  the  blackbirds  had  established  themselves,  but  the 
yellow-heads,  always  associated  with  them  on  the  coast,  had 
not  yet  found  their  way  hither.  Four  kingfishers  drew  sus- 
tenance from  the  little  creek,  the  great  grey  and  the  great 
green,  the  pygmy  and  the  spotted.  Ground  doves  were  ubiq- 
uitous and  perhaps  the  most  abundant  of  the  clearing  birds, 
but  their  favorite  haunts  were  the  sandy  roads,  where  they 
trotted  along  in  droves,  two  species  of  them,  the  grey  and 
the  talpacoti  ground  doves.  Here,  too,  the  white-necked 
nighthawks  came  at  twilight  and  called  their  lonesome  who- 
are-you,  and  performed  their  weird  dances  in  the  moonlight, 
sometimes  fifty  or  more  together. 

Passing  down  to  the  banks  of  the  Mazaruni  and  the 
extent  of  sand  and  muddy  beach  exposed  at  low  tide,  we 
surprised  the  great-billed  terns  occasionally  flying  over,  or 
stopping  to  snatch  at  the  host  of  winged  termites  rising  from 
some  dead  stump.  Snakebirds  perched  along  the  edge  or 
dropped  off  and  swam  half-immersed.  Five  herons  and  an 
ibis  fished  along  shore,  the  cocoi,  little  blue  and  agami  her- 
ons, American  and  snowy  egrets  and  the  curious  Guiana 
ibises.  Two  swallows  were  essentially  fluvicoline,  the  varie- 
gated and  the  half -belted,  but  their  frequent  excursions  to 
the  clearing  in  pursuit  of  insect  food,  gave  them  a  right  to 
inclusion  in  our  list. 

There  remained  the  dense  shrubbery  and  the  second- 
growth  itself,  and  indeed  the  rubber  trees  also,  where  these 
had  waxed  tall  and  strong.  In  such  places  there  dwelt  an 
interesting  assemblage  of  more  than  twenty-five  species  of 
birds  found  nowhere  else  in  this  region.  The  only  subdivi- 
sions I  can  make  are  superficial  and  unequal.  One  was  a 
bird  of  prey,  one  wholly  terrestrial,  and  another  nocturnal. 
The  first  was  the  four-banded  sparrowhawk,  which  hunted 
both  in  the  rubber  and  the  secondgrowth.  The  ground  bird 
was  the  pileated  tinamou  whose  plaintive  trill  rang  out  night 
and  morning.  The  bird  of  night  was  the  giant  goatsucker 
or  poor-me-one. 


Photo  by  P.  O.  H. 
JUNGLE  FROM  THE  MAZARUNI,  SHOWING  HEIGHT  OF  GIANT  MORA. 


OPEN  CLEARING  AND  SECONDGROWTH  67 

Besides  these,  two  pigeons  made  this  their  home,  the 
rufous  and  the  grey-fronted,  feeding  on  the  fruit  of  small 
berry  trees  and  building  their  nests  among  the  tangles  of 
razor-grass.  The  little  guan  or  hanaqua  sang  its  chorus  in 
pairs  in  the  early  morning.  Rufous  cuckoos  slipped  silently 
through  the  branches  and  their  cousins,  the  smooth-billed 
anis  or  witch-birds  almost  typify  the  clearing  to  our  mem- 
ory, so  ubiquitous  and  individual  were  they.  Of  the  passer- 
ine birds,  the  dominant  forms  were  flycatchers  and  we  count- 
ed nine  species  as  quite  characteristic  of  the  clearing.  Three 
were  kiskadees,  the  great  Guiana,  small-billed  and  the  lesser. 
Then  came  grey-headed  kingbirds,  streaked  and  varied  fly- 
catchers, yellow-breasted  elanias,  and  the  grey  and  the  spot- 
ted tody-flycatchers.  Yellow  warblers,  apparently  identical 
with  those  of  our  northern  woodlands,  sang  and  fed  in  com- 
pany with  black  and  lesser  white-shouldered  tanagers,  bril- 
liant moriche  and  black-throated  orioles. 

Lastly  came  a  few  forms  of  great  interest,  strays  from 
the  jungle,  which,  after  becoming  specialized  and  adapted 
to  a  wholly  aboreal,  scansorial  life,  had,  during  late  genera- 
tions, undergone  a  readaptation  to  a  perching  existence. 
These  were  the  brown  and  the  yellow- throated  synallaxes 
or  spirietails,  aberrant  forms  of  the  woodhewers  of  the  jun- 
gle. The  checkbird  had  also  long  deserted  the  haunts  of 
its  numerous  antbird  cousins  and  taken  up  life  in  the  semi- 
open. 

This  completes  the  tale  of  the  peculiar  birds  of  this 
area,  a  hasty  review  which  will  serve  to  emphasize  the  radical 
departure  from  the  jungle  types  so  close  at  hand.  As  to 
their  songs  and  courtships,  their  nests  and  eggs,  their  molts 
and  their  personalities  in  general,  we  made  a  beginning,  an 
excellent  beginning.  In  the  future  we  hope  to  complete 
these  life-histories  and  to  record  all  that  a  human  being  may 
learn  through  keen  and  sympathetic  observation. 


FIG.  23.    OPEN  JUNGLE  SHOWING.INDIAN  TRAIL. 


Photo  Ity  P.  G.  If. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  JUNGLE  AND   ITS  LIFE 

Three  popular  misconceptions  exist  in  regard  to  trop- 
ical jungles: 

First,  that  the  heat  and  dangers  are  excessive. 

Second,  that  animal  life  is  scanty  or  almost  absent. 

Third,  that  "eternal  summer"  reigns. 

In  our  homes  in  the  North  we  glean  these  idles  fixees 
from  travelogues  written  at  second  hand  or  censored  with 
an  idea  to  continuous  and  intensive  sensation.  Indeed,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  the  tropical  jungles  should  be  thought 
so  unhealthy  and  barren,  for  the  people  who  live  just  with- 
out their  borders  hold  the  same  beliefs.  The  native  of  the 
city  of  Georgetown  who  has  not  visited  the  "bush"  deems 
it  to  be  filled  with  serpents  and  noisome  fevers,  while  he  who 
has  been  up  country  will  still  tell  you  that  the  jungle  is  all 
but  devoid  of  life. 

Without  further  preamble  I  would  like  thus  early  in 
this  volume  to  emphasize  the  falsity  of  these  erroneous, 
world-wide  ideas,  speaking  from  many  years  of  experience 
in  tropical  jungles;  in  general  of  India,  Ceylon,  Malasia, 
Borneo,  South  China  and  Mexico,  and  in  particular  of  the 
jungle  or  bush  of  British  Guiana. 

First,  the  heat  of  the  jungle  is  not  oppressive  even  at 
high  noon.  The  difference  between  bearable,  even  comfort- 
able temperature,  and  the  gasping  point  of  altitude  of  the 
thermometer  quicksilver,  is  exactly  that  between  shadow  and 
sunshine. 

It  was  full  noon  when  one  day  in  May  I  seated  myself 
on  a  fallen  log  at  the  very  edge  of  the  jungle  which  I  had 
chosen  for  intensive  study.  I  was  wholly  in  shadow,  but  I 
could  reach  my  hand  out  into  full  sunlight.  My  thermometer 


70  TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

in  the  shade  at  my  side  registered  78  degrees.  Without 
moving  my  seat  I  shifted  the  instrument  a  yard,  thirty-six 
inches  of  horizontal  space,  and  the  mercury  straightway 
climbed  almost  seventy  vertical  degrees.  In  five  minutes 
the  metal  frame  had  become  too  hot  to  hold  and  the  silvery 
column  came  to  rest  at  147  degrees.  With  such  heat  less 
than  a  yard  away  I  was  comfortable  in  the  shade,  and  in 
the  dim,  cool  depths  of  the  jungle  I  could  walk  or  write  for 
hours  without  feeling  any  due  oppression.  The  highest 
shade  temperature  known  in  the  colony  is  93  degrees,  not 
unworthy  of  comparison  with  the  105  degrees  which  I  have 
seen  more  than  once  in  a  Nassau  Street  business  office.  The 
minimum  temperature  of  coastal  Guiana  is  67  degrees  and 
the  average  for  the  region  about  Bartica  78  degrees.  The 
nights  are  cool,  and  one,  sometimes  two  blankets  were  al- 
ways necessary.  Re  calories,  our  first  misconception,  q.  e.  d! 
As  to  dangers  in  the  jungle,  unfortunately  we  cannot 
deal  with  statistics  or  definite  degrees  or  figures  of  any  sort, 
so  that  whatever  I  write  may  be  thought  discounted  by  per- 
sonal bias.  I  may  say  at  once  that  in  the  last  six  months 
I  have  been  very  near  death — once — and  the  rest  of  the  time 
the  danger  has  been  equal  to  that  of  going  black-berrying 
in  a  New  England  pasture.  Rarely,  very  rarely,  I  saw  a 
poisonous  snake,  and  with  leather  puttees  this  danger  is  quite 
negatived.  If  one  thrusts  one's  hand  into  every  hole  or  rot- 
ten log,  in  the  course  of  time  one  will  be  bitten  by  a  scorpion 
or  centipede  or  tarantula.  If  one's  blood  is  in  good  condi- 
tion a  few  days  of  painful  swelling  will  follow.  If  one  tastes 
all  the  delicious  looking  nuts  in  the  trail,  or  the  delectable 
appearing  mushrooms,  illness  is  certain  to  follow  sooner  or 
later,  while  a  good  draught  of  amber  jungle  water  will  as 
likely  as  not  bring  amoebic  death.  But  if  one  avoids  these 
senseless  actions  and  is  too  much  absorbed  in  exciting  pur- 
suit of  bird  or  beast  or  insect  to  think  of  dangers,  one  may, 
as  we  have  done,  walk,  or  crawl  or  squirm  one's  way  day  after 
day  through  the  heart  of  the  jungle,  along  dry  hill-sides 


JUNGLE  LIFE  71 

and  through  stagnant  swamps,  and  return  tired,  perhaps 
exhausted,  but  safe  and  sound  in  body,  limb  and  skin. 

As  I  have  written  many  times  before,  the  greatest  dan- 
ger of  tropical  jungles  is  from  falling  vegetation,  nuts,  seeds, 
leaves  and  trees  themselves.  But  to  deny  oneself  the  enjoy- 
ment of  this  wonderful  world  of  life  for  such  a  reason,  would 
be  exactly  equivalent  to  avoid  going  out  on  the  streets  of 
Xew  York  because  automobiles  kill  on  an  average  of  one 
person  a  day.  I  never  saw  a  person  killed  by  a  falling  nut 
or  tree,  but  I  have  occasionally  heard  these  crashing  down, 
and  have  seen  nuts  like  cannon-balls  embed  themselves  in 
the  soft  mold.  In  a  recent  official  report  of  deaths  among 
gold  diggers  in  the  interior  of  the  colony,  an  equal  number 
- — five — was  reported  from  malaria  and  from  falling  trees. 

Our  work  doubtless  lay  in  a  particularly  favorable  lo- 
cality, but  in  my  experiences  in  tropical  jungles  both  in  the 
Far  East  and  in  South  America,  I  would  substitute  the 
word  inconveniences  for  dangers.  In  Bartica  district,  for 
month  after  month,  mosquitos  and  flies  were  practically  ab- 
sent. Throughout  the  dry  and  the  rainy  seasons  we  waded 
swamps  and  pools  and  saw  fewer  mosquitos  than  came  into 
my  room  in  a  single  night  in  Georgetown  or  New  York,  and 
these  few  were  neither  Anopleles  nor  Stegomyia.  Bete 
rouge  was  abundant  and  enthusiastic,  although  not  worse 
than  on  some  parts  of  Long  Island  and  never  nearly  as  bad 
as  I  have  known  them  on  the  coast  of  Virginia.  Crab  oil  is 
a  preventive,  and  a  saturated  salt  solution  an  effective  cure. 
Jiggers  and  ticks  were  absent.  Twice  we  were  stung  by 
small  wasps  and  many  times  by  angry  ants.  At  Kalacoon 
House  we  slept  without  nets,  but  at  first  kept  a  lantern  burn- 
ing low.  This  effectively  prevented  molestation  from  vam- 
pires which  were  abundant  and  flew  freely  through  the  house. 
Later  we  dispensed  with  the  light,  but  were  never  molested. 
Perai  were  common  in  the  river,  but  everyone  hereabouts 
bathed,  and  there  was  no  record  of  a  person  having  been 
bitten.  Howes  and  I  were  once  charged  by  a  jaguar  within 


FIG.  24.    BASE  AND  ROOTS  OF  GIANT  MORA  TREE. 


Photo  6w  P.  O.  H. 


JUNGLE  LIFE  73 

a  short  distance  of  the  house.  The  animal  came  full  speed 
to  within  eight  feet  of  us,  but  swerved  and  swept  aside  when 
he  saw  we  were  not  deer  or  other  expected  prey. 

I  find  nothing  further  to  write  about  dangers  or  incon- 
veniences, because — there  is  nothing  more  to  be  written. 
When  I  recall  the  breathless,  hot  nights  of  a  New  York 
summer,  the  malignant  malaria  which  at  times  spreads  over 
the  suburbs  of  the  same  city,  when  I  remember  the  copper- 
heads and  rattlers  of  the  Palisades,  the  mosquitos  and  black 
flies  of  our  northern  forests,  the  biting  green  flies  of  our 
shore  resorts  and  the  jiggers  of  the  southern  states,  the  all 
but  complete  absence  of  corresponding  sources  of  annoy- 
ance seems  all  the  more  remarkable  in  the  rank  jungles  in 
which  we  worked,  a  jungle  overflowing  with  animal  life  of 
every  description. 

The  second  misconception,  that  of  the  scarcity  of  the 
various  forms  of  life  in  tropical  jungles  would,  from  its 
absurdity,  seem  hardly  to  deserve  refutation,  were  it  not 
that  it  is  constantly  reiterated,  and  that  by  persons  of  intel- 
ligence who  have  recently  made  long  trips  through  these 
regions.  Its  sole  inspiration  lies  in  the  method  of  observa- 
tion, the  casual  looking  about  as  one  passes  up  the  rivers 
in  a  woodskin,  or  glances  to  right  or  left  when  walking  along 
a  trail. 

The  operation  of  protective  coloration,  the  effectiveness 
of  warning  pigments  and  patterns,  of  mimicry,  these  and 
other  expedients  of  wild  existence — the  very  distinction  be- 
tween life  and  death — all  depend,  at  the  crises  of  their  ful- 
fillment, on  the  two  alternative  factors  of  movement  and  in- 
activity. This  is  one  of  the  most  pronounced  laws  of  the 
jungle.  Clad  in  white  or  in  any  conspicuous  color,  you  may 
successfully  hunt  the  wariest  of  jungle  creatures,  provided 
you  select  some  suitable  spot  and  remain  quiet.  Garbed  in 
leaf  green  and  the  most  invisible  of  khaki,  the  common  agouti 
and  the  trustful  trumpeter  bird  will  easily  escape  you  if  you 


74 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  by  TV.  B. 


FIG.  25.    JUNGLE  FUNGUS. 


persist  in  walking  about,  or  moving  some  part  of  your  body 
or  hands. 

Thus  it  is  that,  passing  in  a  canoe  with  noise  of  paddles, 
or  tramping  a  trail  to  the  accompaniment  of  crackling  twigs 
and  leaves,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  jungle  seems  deserted, 
a  place  of  distant,  unattached  voices  or  a  region  of  lifeless 
silence.  As  well  complain  of  the  paucity  of  bird  life  in  a 
country  which  you  have  just  traversed  in  a  swift  motor  car, 
or  of  the  lack  of  botanical  knowledge  to  be  gleaned  from 
an  aeroplane!  When  walking  in  the  jungle  in  single  file 
with  a  number  of  people,  I  have  often  dropped  back  and 
squatted  motionless,  and  less  than  two  minutes  after  the 
last  figure  passed  from  view,  the  hidden  creatures  began  to 
reveal  themselves,  first  vocally,  then  optically,  until  normal 


JUNGLE   LIFE  75 

conditions  settled  down,  and  insects,  reptiles,  birds  and 
beasts  again  resumed  their  natural  activities.  So  much  for 
what  we  might  call  the  mechanics  of  observation. 

Argument  such  as  the  present  is  always  strengthened 
and  reinforced  by  the  inverse  ratio  of  the  area  considered. 
So  I  will  take  as  an  example — given  more  in  detail  elsewhere 
in  this  volume — the  area  in  which  we  actually  carried  on 
our  researches.  This  was  a  patch  of  jungle  of  about  the 
size  of  Central  Park  in  New  York  City.  During  the  first 
week  I  made  no  attempt  at  careful  observation,  but  walked 
around  and  through  the  selected  zone,  mapping  it  and  de- 
ciding on  its  outlines.  My  lists  of  birds  observed  on  these 
days  were  small  indeed.  Could  these  meagre  notes  have 
been  seen  by  my  pessimistic  friends  who  had  prophesied  a 
dearth  of  jungle  life,  their  convictions  would  have  been 
strengthened.  And  yet,  when  we  had  settled  down  to  care- 
ful study  and  watching,  our  lists  grew  out  of  all  proportions. 
We  were  not  collecting.  Many  and  many  a  day  I  spent  in 
watching  a  certain  group  of  birds  without  shooting  one. 
We  made  no  concerted  attempts  at  the  shooting  of  tree-top 
birds  in  the  hope  of  adding  a  new  name  to  our  list.  We 
collected  only  what  we  needed  for  material  for  definite  prob- 
lems, and  yet  hardly  a  day  passed  when  we  did  not  find  one 
or  more  species  new  to  us.  At  the  end  of  our  stay  we  had 
made  observations  on  two  hundred  and  eighty-one  different 
species.  And  on  the  very  last  day  of  our  work — when  I 
had  finished  packing  and  took  a  last  farewell  tramp,  I  saw- 
two  birds  which  I  could  not  identify  with  any  which  we  had 
seen  or  shot  before.  In  this  same  area,  quite  incidentally,  we 
observed  about  fifty  species  of  mammals,  embracing  all  the 
important  forms  of  north-eastern  South  America,  while  with 
Whitely's  birds  which  he  gathered  in  this  same  locality,  our 
neighborhood  was  proven  to  be  the  home  of  three  hundred 
and  fifty-one  different  species. 

As  to  still  more  restricted  tropical  areas  I  must  refer 
to  the  week's  census  of  a  single  tree  and  the  examination  of 


76  TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH   GUIANA 

four  square  feet  of  jungle  mold  which  I  recently  made  in 
Para,  Brazil. *  My  experience  in  tropical  jungles  has  shown, 
not  that  they  contain  a  paucity  of  various  forms  of  life,  but 
au  jcontrcare,  taken  in  the  aggregate,  they  possess  a  much 
richer  fauna  than  any  type  of  region  where  I  have  studied. 
But  this  infinity  of  organisms  is  not  blatantly  revealed.  They 
are  not  as  apparent  to  the  casual  observer  as  the  soaring 
hawk  or  the  flock  of  blackbirds  in  the  open.  Guarded  jeal- 
ously by  their  colors,  patterns,  shapes  and  their  fear  of  the 
death  which  awaits  them  on  every  hand,  they  remain  con- 
cealed until  the  intruder,  motionless,  identifies  himself  with 
the  harmless  vegetation,  or  makes  his  way,  moccasin  shod, 
clad  in  dull,  neutral  garb,  quietly,  silently,  with  the  soft  step 
of  the  Indian. 

Skirting  the  coasts  of  these  tropical  lands,  or  steaming 
or  paddling  up  the  rivers,  the  eye  always  encounters  the 
same  general  view,  a  mighty  wall  of  green  vegetation. 
Whether  the  month  be  January,  May  or  September,  the 
sun  beats  warmly  down  and  the  great  cliffs  of  emerald  foli- 
age rear  their  heads  on  high.  "Eternal  summer  reigns"  says 
the  guide-book,  and  the  bromidically  inclined  traveller  ech- 
oes the  statement. 

However,  as  soon  as  one  begins  to  study  the  jungle  and 
day  after  day  looks  out  upon  it,  and,  walking  through  and 
through  it,  makes  daily  notes  of  the  changes  overhead  and 
beneath  his  feet,  the  realization  comes  that  spring  and  sum- 
mer are  quite  distinct,  autumn  and  winter  easily  differen- 
tiated. And  this  is  true  even  of  those  places,  like  Bartica 
district,  where  the  dry  seasons  are  not  times  of  drought,  but 
merit  their  name  only  in  comparison  with  the  intensity  of 
the  rainy  periods. 

The  first  thing,  however,  that  an  observer  learns  in  the 
tropics  is  that  no  law  can  be  laid  down  as  absolute.  The 
continual  warm  weather  and  humidity,  and  the  tremendous 
competition  between  the  multitude  of  organisms  results  in 

'Zoologica,  II,  Nos.  3  and  4,  pp.  55-119. 


JUNGLE   LIFE 


77 


Photo  by  W.  B. 
FIG.  26.    HOLLOW  TREE,  USED  FOR  OBSERVATION  AND  AS  SHELTER  FROM  RAIN. 

activities  of  every  phase  of  life  through  the  year.  So  that 
while  there  is  not  a  single  week  of  all  the  fifty-two  when 
blossoms  and  fruit,  caterpillars  and  butterflies,  larvae  and 
wasps,  eggs  and  molting  birds  cannot  be  found,  yet  my  the- 
sis holds  good  when  we  consider  life  in  the  aggregate. 


JUNGLE  LIFE  79 

But  this  is  only  half  the  story.  Not  only  is  there  a 
normal  sequence  of  seasons,  but  there  are  two  series  of  these 
seasons,  unequal,  but  well-defined:  This  is  a  factor  which 
adds  immensely  to  the  complexity  of  research,  but  is  of  such 
significance  and  importance  that  I  expect  to  devote  much 
time  in  the  future  to  its  study.  In  the  north  we  have  a  burst 
of  apple  blossoms  in  the  spring,  when  the  tree  puts  forth  its 
might  and  produces  a  cloud  of  color  and  perfume,  and  later 
the  glorious  residue  of  fruit.  But  we  must  also  have  noticed 
that  in  the  autumn  when  all  thoughts  of  summer  are  past, 
when  the  katydids  are  slowing  down,  and  the  leaves  have 
yellowed  and  fallen,  that  traces  appear  of  a  brief,  false 
spring.  Some  of  the  winter  buds  unfold,  and  produce  a 
scattering  of  brave  blossoms.  The  violets  among  the  dying 
grass  stems  send  up  a  pitiful  showing  of  flowers,  strangely 
out  of  place.  Then  comes  a  blasting  frost  and  the  farce  is 
at  an  end.  Indian  summer — like  the  Ruby- throat — may  be 
only  a  northern  effort  faintly  adumbrating  the  tropical 
exuberance ! 

Here  in  this  land  of  excess  energy,  the  second  summer 
is  not  a  failure,  although  subordinate  to  the  real  spring. 
Plants  flower  and  fruit,  insects  send  out  fresh  broods,  birds 
again  pair  and  nest  and  again  see  their  fledglings  safe  on 
the  wing.  This  we  already  know,  and  study  of  these  suc- 
cessive seasons  will  reveal  much  of  importance.  For  the 
outward  circling  effects  of  this  secondary  cycle  are  not  to 
be  measured  merely  by  the  additional  numbers.  They  reach 
out  and  control  many  factors  which  are  seemingly  concerned 
only  with  lives  of  creatures  six  months  before  or  as  many 
in  the  future. 

There  are  no  jungles  in  the  world  comparable  in  gran- 
deur to  those  of  the  South  American  tropics,  and  this  is 
true  of  many  other  aspects.  The  trees  here  are  larger  and 
higher — some  reaching  the  really  tremendous  height  of  two 
hundred  feet.  The  epiphytes  are  more  abundant  and  strik- 
ing than  in  any  jungle  of  the  East,  the  lianas  are  larger 


80  TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH   GUIANA 

and  more  spectacular  in  their  vegetable  eccentricities,  while 
the  curtains  of  aerial  roots  are  to  be  seen  nowhere  else. 

Jungles  have  been  written  about  in  every  book  of  tropi- 
cal travel,  but  have  been  really  described  in  none.  And  they 
will  not  be,  any  more  than  it  is  possible  to  give  an  accurate 
word  picture  of  a  volcano  in  eruption.  When  one  enters 
the  jungle  for  the  first  time,  the  feeling  of  awe  and  wonder, 
the  apparent  hopeless  confusion  and  inextricable  mingling 
of  plants  and  animals,  the  juxtaposition  of  life  and  death, 
of  growth  and  decay ;  these,  with  the  magic  of  coloring  and 
form,  totally  inhibit  clear  description.  The  plethora  of  ad- 
jectives and  adverbs  clogs  all  other  grammatical  forms. 
And  afterwards,  when  the  hidden  harmony  begins  to  become 
apparent  by  the  following  of  some  single  thread,  or  the  ends 
of  the  least  tangled  skein,  then  one  is  too  close  for  perspect- 
ive, one  has  become  too  intimate  for  correct  delineation  of 
the  whole.  It  is  equally  difficult  to  describe  at  a  glance  the 
face  of  a  stranger,  and  to  portray  the  expression  of  one's 
most  intimate  friend.  And  with  the  jungle  there  seems  no 
middle  course.  So  from  inadequate  words  and  over-detailed 
photographs,  one's  image  of  the  jungle  must  be  mosaiced — 
unless  one  has,  himself,  enjoyed  the  supreme  delight  of 
walking  in  these  wonder  aisles. 

I  shall  call  attention  only  to  a  few  details,  which  per- 
haps from  their  very  obviousness,  are  usually  overlooked. 
If  one  passes  rapidly  through  the  forest,  the  general  effect 
is  of  a  mist  of  delicate  foliage  sifting  through  all  the  immen- 
sities of  twilight  beneath  the  tree-tops  high,  high  overhead. 
This  leaf  age*  sprayed  through  mid-air  is  such  as  we  see  early 
in  May  in  our  northern  woods.  The  principal  difference 
is  that  with  us  the  delicacy  of  foliage  is  due  to  immaturity, 
while  here  it  is  caused  by  the  paucity  of  light. 

An  important  character  of  the  jungle  is  the  almost  com- 
plete absence  of  large,  horizontal  branches.  Trees  such  as 
our  oaks,  beeches  and  maples  are  unknown,  and  this  I  be- 
lieve is  due  solely  to  the  abundance  and  deadly  character  of 


JUNGLE  LIFE  81 

the  lianas — those  fast-growing  serpents  of  the  plant  world 
which  lie  in  wait  both  upon  the  ground  and  upon  the  loftiest 
tree-top,  too  weak  to  raise  themselves  unaided,  seeking  ever 
for  some  support  upon  which  to  rest,  thus  ultimately  to  reach 
upward  to  the  coveted,  unrestricted  light  and  air. 

We  saw  how  in  the  secondgrowth  the  young  cecropias 
shot  upward  with  their  single,  smooth  stem.  Here,  if  a  sap- 
ling dared  throw  out  any  heavy  side  branch,  some  insidious 
vine  would  be  certain  to  curl  over  it,  and  to  thicken  until 
the  weight  would  break  the  branch  or  bring  down  the  young- 
tree.  For  the  same  reason  there  are  few  or  no  leaning  or  bent 
trunks.  All  are  straight  as  plummets — a  dense  fretting  of 
vertical  lines,  in  size  ranging  from  the  thread  so  fine  that 
its  source  is  lost  in  the  twilight  overhead,  to  the  great  trunks 
of  mora  and  greenheart,  yards  in  diameter. 

For  purposes  of  convenience  in  my  bird  work,  I  found 
it  necessary  to  divide  the  jungle  into  four  horizontal  zones 
or  strata ;  the  Floor  of  the  Jungle,  the  Lower  Jungle  up  to 
twenty  feet,  the  Mid- jungle  as  high  as  seventy  and  the  Tree- 
tops  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  feet  above 
the  ground.  The  floras  and  faunas  of  these  zones  are  as 
distinct  as  is  the  abyssmal  from  the  plankton,  and  these  in 
turn  from  the  surface  life  of  the  ocean.  Finally  the  air  above 
the  jungle  had  to  be  taken  into  consideration  as  being  the 
principal  haunt  of  many  forms  of  life,  just  as  we  have  sea- 
birds  and  flying  fish  and  air-breathing  cetaceans  in  the  case 
of  the  pelagic  simile. 

The  ground  in  the  jungle  was  covered  with  the  accu- 
mulated debris  of  centuries,  all  the  immense  mass  of  vegeta- 
tion which  reared  itself  on  high,  falling  sooner  or  later,  and 
returning  to  this  globigerina  ooze  of  the  dry  land.  Fallen 
tree  trunks  lay  here  and  there,  some  recent,  with  the  swath 
of  their  descent  still  open  and  raw,  others  with  semblance 
of  wood  and  bark,  but  crumbling  to  mold  at  a  touch.  This 
was  the  home  of  fungi,  mosses  and  lichens,  in  shapes  and 
pigments  unnumbered  and  unnamed.  Day  after  day,  dur- 


JUNGLE   LIFE  83 

ing  the  rains,  my  thoughts  of  birds  and  other  vertebrates 
were  momentarily  erased  by  the  sudden  sight  of  fairy  castles, 
laces,  sunshades,  pikes,  spears,  pagodas,  spirals  and  scores 
of  other  forms  of  fungi  for  which  no  simile  existed.  Here, 
too,  grew  the  variegated  caladiums  and  other  ground  plants, 
and  here  were  those  wonderful  buttresses  which  enable  the 
trees  to  reach  such  stupendous  heights  with  such  slight  girth 
of  trunk. 

In  the  low  and  mid-heights  was  found  the  soft  mist  of 
green  foliage  of  the  jungle  undergrowth,  springing  from 
thin,  twig-like  branches  and  supported  on  marvelously  slen- 
der stems.  The  chief  zone  of  this  undergrowth  was  between 
five  and  seventy  feet,  above  which  the  tall,  straight  trunks 
of  the  larger  trees  were  dominant,  with  no  trace  of  branch 
or  leaf  until  the  luxuriant  crowns  were  reached.  There  all 
the  pent-up  vegetative  energy,  all  the  suppressed  functions 
other  than  mere  altitude  of  barren  trunks  were  released  in 
a  dense  outburst  of  leaves,  branches,  flowers  and  fruit.  ~1 

As  one  walked  through  the  jungle,  tinamou  and  par- 
tridges sprang  up  and  whirred  away,  agoutis  and  armadillos 
scuttled  from  their  feeding  grounds.  Tracks  of  deer,  tapir, 
paca  and  various  cats  showed  the  movements  of  these  ani- 
mals during  the  preceding  night.  Grisons  and,  more  rarely, 
small  jungle  mice  and  rats  were  observed.  On  fallen  leaves 
tiny  jungle  frogs  shrilled,  and  giant  marine  toads  lived  their 
sluggish  life.  Salamanders  and  serpents  were  rare.  Once 
in  a  while  a  bushmaster,  fer-de-lance,  or  some  harmless  snake 
was  seen  coiled  or  slowly  slipping  over  the  leaves.  Now  and 
then  a  big  yellow  turtle  ploughed  heavily  along.  All  the 
greater  and  lesser  fry  of  the  underworld  whose  delight  was 
in  decayed  wood,  who  called  the  mold  home,  were  here — 
strange  grubs  and  beetles,  scorpions,  myriapods,  peripatus 
and_all  wingless,  creeping  things. 

1  When  I  raised  my  eyes  to  the  level  of  the  low  jungle — 
to  my  own  height — an  entirely  new  world  appeared.  That 
of  two  dimensions  was  left  behind  and  one  of  three  entered. 


JUNGLE   LIFE  85 

Here  began  the  domain  of  creatures  of  moderate  flight  and 
of  limited  climbing  ability,  which,  unlike  the  tortoise  and  the 
tapir  were  not  bound  to  the  ground.  Here  I  was  always 
certain  to  find  manakins  of  several  species,  and  antbirds  of 
still  more.  Here  the  trumpeters  and  jungle  wrens  uttered 
their  characteristic  calls.  At  night  opossums  wandered, 
while  in  the  twilight  of  mid-day,  morphos— those  bits  of 
quintessent  pigment — flapped  leisurely  along,  together  with 
their  opposites,  the  skeleton  butterflies.  . 

The  mid- jungle  was  the  heart  of  the  tropical  lifeT\Here 
I  could  no  longer  feel  myself  on  equal  terms  in  height.  1 
had  most  painfully  to  crane  my  neck  upward,  and  to  study 
the  inhabitants  of  this  suspended  cosmos  with  glasses  or  shot- 
gun. Here  the  big  curassows  and  guans  perched  and  nested, 
the  great  pigeons,  the  motmots,  jacamars,  trogons,  gold- 
birds  and  a  host  of  tanagers  and  flycatchers  and  strange 
tropic  forms  chirped,  sang,  fed,  courted  and  nested.  In 
the  mid-heights  the  big  tree-frogs  boomed,  and  the  sloths 
vegetated  from  birth  until  the  claws  of  a  harpy  eagle  gripped 
them.  Squirrels  were  so  rare  as  to  appear  strange  forms, 
known  chiefly  from  memory;  marmosets  and  coatis  usurped 
their  place  by  day,  while  kinkajous  climbed  about  by  moon- 
light. Orchids,  air-plants  and  lianas  rioted,  and  unknown 
growths  dropped  a  myriad  plummets,  a  warp  of  aerial  roots ; 
threads  until  they  reached  the  ground,  then  becoming  in 
turn  twine,  cord,  rope  and  cable.  It  was  the  great  center 
of  life  of  the  South  American  jungles,  a  zone  vibrating  with 
a  myriad  forms  suspended  half-way  between  heaven  and 
earth.  Still  it  was  a  zone  with  decidedly  earthward  tenden- 
cies. Some  of  its  inhabitants  descended  to  sleep,  others  to 
feed  or  to  build  their  homes.  The  majority,  however,  re- 
mained throughout  their  lives  as  they  were  born,  plankton 
of  the  jungle. 

Yet  another  continent  of  life  remains  to  be  discovered, 
not  upon  the  earth,  but  one  to  two  hundred  feet  above  it, 
extending  over  thousands  of  square  miles  of  South  America. 


86 


TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  bit  If. 
FIG.  30.    MACUSHI  INDIAN  ON  HIS  SHOOTING  PLATFORM,  WAITING  FOR  GAME. 

At  present  we  know  almost  nothing  of  it.  Up  to  now 
gravitation  and  tree-trunks  swarming  with  terrible  ants 
have  kept  us  at  bay,  and  of  the  tree-top  life  we  have  obtained 
only  unconnected  facts  and  specimens.  For  the  most  part 
my  glasses  showed  forms  silhouetted  in  black  against  the 
bright  sky  beyond.  I  could  fire  upward  and  with  a  heavily 
loaded  choke  bore  usually  bring  down  the  bird  I  desjred. 


JUNGLE  LIFE  87 

Or  I  could  put  my  Indians  to  chopping  down  some  of  the 
great  trees,  and  after  hours  of  labor,  if  no  interfering  trees 
or  binding  lianas  set  all  our  work  at  naught,  I  could  search 
among  the  mass  of  broken,  bruised  foliage,  an  almost  hope- 
less task,  for  casual  specimens.  And  what  I  found  might 
often  have  been  brushed  down  from  the  mid- jungle,  or  have 
been  disturbed  among  the  very  leaves  of  the  ground. 

With  my  shot  bird  in  my  hand  and  my  black  silhouettes 
and  my  scattering  of  crushed  specimens,  I  was  very  far  from 
real  knowledge  of  tree-top  life.  What  of  the  tree-frogs,  and 
butterflies  and  birds  and  unknown  hosts  of  creatures  which 
never  voluntarily  descend  to  the  ground.  There  awaits  a 
rich  harvest  for  the  naturalist  who  overcomes  the  obstacles 
— gravitation,  ants,  thorns,  rotten  trunks, — and  mounts  to 
the  summits  of  the  jungle  trees.  Another  year  we  hope  to 
begin  this  work,  and  to  sit  in  hammocks  or  on  platforms 
swung  aloft  among  the  toucans,  macaws,  parrots  and  ca- 
ciques, the  umbrella,  the  calf  and  the  bellbirds  whose  strange 
distant  notes  or  whose  dead  bodies  were  merely  tantalizing 
invitations  to  the  manifold  secrets  which  intimate  observation 
among  the  tree- tops  is  certain  to  reveal. 

To  show  the  stratified  activities  of  a  few  typical  groups 
of  jungle  birds  and  mammals,  I  have  prepared  the  following 
rough  diagram: 

Ground  Low  Jungle  Mid  Jungle 

(0-20  feet)  (20-70  feet) 

Partridges       Trumpeters         Curassows       Barbets 

Tinamou         Antbirds  Guans  Jacamars 

Manakins  Pigeons  Puffbirds 

Wrens  Hawks  Goldbirds 

Thrushes  Owls  Mourners 

Motmots         Honey-creepers 

Trogons 

Tree-tops  (70-200  feet) 

Cotingas  Macaws  Parrakeets          etc.,  etc. 

Toucans  Parrots  Giant  Caciques 


88  TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH   GUIANA 

-(Groups  found  typically  in  more  than  one  Zone) 
Ground  Low  Jungle  Mid  Jungle        Tree-tops 

(0-20  feet)  (20-70  feet)      (70-200  feet) 

Goatsuckers  Goatsuckers        Hummingbirds  Flycatchers 

Hummingbirds  Flycatchers        Hummingbirds 
Tanagers  Tanagers 

Mammals  permit  a  similar  mode  of  representation  of 
altitudinal  distribution: 

Anteaters        Opossums  Anteaters        Red  Howlers 

Armadillos  Sloths  Beesa  Monkeys 

Tapirs  Bats 

Peccaries  Coatis 

Deer  Squirrels 

Cats  Marmosets 

Dogs  Kinkajous 

Galictis 

Rodents 

Returning  to  the  birds  of  the  jungle.  Accepting  1  to 
10  as  the  gradation  of  light  from  the  dimmest  part  of  the 
jungle  to  full  sunlight,  and  with  the  same  divisions  as  a 
basis,  we  can  form  an  interesting  table  of  relative  percent- 
ages of  dull  and  brilliant  birds : 

Gradation 

/,  T  .    i  ,  ONE  THREE  FIVE  TEN 

of  Light 

Percentage 

of  Bright 

Birds  08  50  83 

This  by  no  means  indicates  that  all  the  brilliant  birds 
are  conspicuous  in  their  native  haunts  or  that  the  dull  ones 
are  correspondingly  protected  by  their  pigment.  A  quad- 
rille wren  hopping  about  and  filling  the  low  jungle  with  its 
wonderful  unearthly  melody,  is  a  most  conspicuous  bit  of 
life  in  spite  of  its  garb  of  brown  and  buff.  A  parrakeet 
with  spots  of  yellow  on  vivid  green,  opalescent  in  the  hand, 
is  but  one  leaf  among  a  million  in  the  tree-tops. 


JUNGLE   LIFE 


89 


Photo  by  W.  B. 
FIG.  31.    AKAWAI  INDIAN  BRINGING  IN  PECCARY  FOR  OUR  TABLE. 

The  scents  of  the  jungle  are  manifold  and  our  nostrils 
soon  become  cleared  of  city  smells  and  more  attuned  to  the 
new  clean  ones  of  the  jungle.  But  at  their  best  our  senses 
are  pitifully  inadequate  to  cope  with  those  of  the  wilderness 
folk.  We  would  be  hard  put  to  it  to  learn  anything  with- 
out such  mechanical  crutches  as  enlarging  lenses,  powder 
and  shot.  Unseen  blossoms,  musk-carrying  animals  and  in- 
sects, fungi,  decaying  wood,  all  have  their  individual  odor 
which  we  can  never  hope  to  detect  except  in  the  coarsest 
way.  Again  and  again  we  long  to  supplement  our  eyes  and 
ears  with  the  sensitiveness  of  a  dog's  muzzle. 

The  sounds  of  the  jungle  are  the  most  alluring  of  its 
attributes,  fascinating  because  of  their  unusual  character 
and  because  almost  all  are  wholly  unknown.  The  sense  of 
actual  discovery,  as  day  after  day,  I  traced  screams  and 


90  TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

trills,  chirps  and  bellows  to  their  sources,  was  infinitely  sat- 
isfying. A  percentage  of  one  in  five,  successfully  solved, 
was  about  all  that  one  could  expect. 

Bird  voices  were  the  dominant  ones,  far  excelling  in 
numbers  and  in  unusualness  all  the  others  combined.^  One 
missed  the  sweet,  simple  songs  and  warbles  of  our  northern 
woods.  When,  very  rarely,  a  thrush  uttered  a  phrase,  it 
seemed  wholly  out  of  place.  Sudden  startling  outpourings 
of  sound  were  the  rule — perhaps  a  single  scream  or  wail,  the 
trill  of  a  tinamou  or  the  sweet  crescendo  of  a  woodhewer, 
the  solid  silver  resonating  call  of  the  goldbird  or  the  incom- 
parable anvils  of  the  bellbird.  Frogs  and  toads  were  a  close 
second  in  every  respect  in  the  matter  of  voice,  but  the  mam- 
mals were  dumb  or  else  spoke  in  whispers  or  scents. 

As  in  the  East,  where  the  early  morning  resounded  to 
the  concerted  calls  of  pheasants  and  the  laughing  chorus  of 
gibbons,  so  here  we  were  awakened  by  the  chachalacas  and 
the  red  howling  monkeys — the  "hanaquas  and  baboons"  of 
the  natives.  Again  and  again  I  was  startled  by  similar  par- 
allels between  the  two  great  tropics,  separated  by  so  many 
hundreds  of  miles  of  open  ocean. 

From  whatever  aspect  we  consider  it,  the  tropical  jun- 
gle is  very  wonderful;  a  storehouse  full  of  secrets  at  which 
we  can  merely  guess.  To  solve  even  the  easiest  requires 
punishingly  hard  labor  of  body  and  mind,  hours  of  quiet 
watching  and  slow  creeping  through  dense  tangles.  But 
there  is  no  more  inspiring  and  completely  satisfying  feeling 
in  the  world  than  to  roll  into  one's  hammock  at  night,  with 
note-book,  photographic  plate  or  sketch  book  filled  with  a 
sincere,  however  slight,  addition  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
evolution  of  life  on  this  planet. 


CHAPTER  VII 

BIRD   LIFE  OF  BARTICA  DISTRICT 

Any  attempt  at  thorough  monographic  treatment  of 
the  birds  of  Bartica  district  after  only  a  single  season's  ob- 
servation is  of  course  impossible.  Our  species  catalogues 
show  hundreds  of  more  or  less  related  facts;  in  one  case  we 
have  learned  of  the  nest  building  and  incubation,  in  another 
of  the  gradual  change  of  plumage  from  nestling  to  adult. 
But,  reserving  these  for  future  consideration,  there  is  still 
possible  a  review  of  the  whole  field,  a  bird's-eye-view  which 
is  interesting,  and  in  some  respects  quite  significant.  From 
this  point  of  view  I  offer  this  account  of  bird  life  as  observed 
in  the  vicinity  of  Bartica,  British  Guiana. 

In  the  space  of  five  months,  from  March  on  through 
July,  within  a  rectangle  of  clearing  and  jungle  measuring 
two  miles  by  one-half  mile  we  became  acquainted  with  two 
hundred  and  eighty-one  species  of  birds.  In  the  same  gen 
eral  area  of  jungle,  Whitely,  some  years  ago,  collected  two 
hundred  and  fifty-four  forms.  The  two  lists  yield  for  this 
limited  district,  a  total  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-one  spe- 
cies. This  is  about  one-half  (4f5  per  cent.)  of  the  birds  re- 
corded from  the  whole  colony  of  British  Guiana,  consider- 
ing these  as  numbering  seven  hundred  and  fifty-two,  as  given 
in  the  latest  list  of  South  American  species.  * 

If  I  compare  my  observations  of  bird  life  day  after  day 
in  the  tropics  with  the  memory  of  corresponding  study  in 
our  northern  woods  and  fields,  I  realize  at  once  that  both 
daily  and  in  the  aggregate,  a  greater  number  of  species  and 
individuals  were  observed  in  the  tropical  field  of  work. 
There  were  curious  cross  resemblances  and  differences  in  the 
two  places — these  tropical  jungles  and  the  woods  of  New 

1  A  list  of  the  Birds  of  South  America,  Bradbourne  and  Chubb,  London,  1912. 


92  TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH   GUIANA 

York  and  New  Jersey.  Here  it  was  unusual  to  find  an  iso- 
lated bird,  kingfishers  and  hawks  excepted.  Either  its  mate 
was  with  it,  or  it  was  companioned  by  a  small  flock  of  birds 
of  unrelated  but  friendly  species.  In  the  jungle,  which  I  am 
so  often  assured  is  well  nigh  devoid  of  life,  I  found  birds 
much  more  abundant  than  in  temperate  regions.  To  formu- 
late a  still  more  definite  statement,  whenever  I  returned 
after  a  long  tramp  in  the  jungle,  whether  along  animal  or 
Indian  trails,  or  by  compass  or  sun  through  the  untracked 
"bush,"  I  recalled  more  birds  than  would  appear  in  an  aver- 
age walk  in  northern  woods.  Besides  actual  preponderance 
of  numbers,  the  breeding  season  had  something  to  do  with 
this.  The  period  of  nesting  varied  so  much  in  different  spe- 
cies, that  in  any  month,  certain  forms  were  found  free  from 
nesting  cares  and  gathered  into  flocks,  and  these,  whether 
gleaning  from  the  very  highest  tree-tops  or  from  mid- 
growth,  filled  the  jungle  with  movement  and  sound.  In  the 
rubber  clearing  where  weeds  and  grass  seeds  were  a  perpet- 
ual crop,  bird  life  was  even  more  abundant,  and  at  times  the 
finches  flew  up  before  one  like  crowds  of  grasshoppers. 

No  niche  or  stratum  of  jungle  was  free  from  birds. 
Some  species  roamed  through  and  over  it  at  will,  others 
were  confined  to  certain  definite  areas.  Some  spent  their 
life  on  the  ground  and  never  perched  on  twig  or  branch. 
Others  clung  to  bark  from  birth  to  death,  their  road  in  life 
a  never-ending  series  of  vertical  ascents;  some  spent  the 
hours  of  light  in  mid-air  so  high  that  to  them  the  jungle 
must  have  appeared  as  a  lawn  of  grass  does  to  us.  There 
were  birds  which  penetrated  the  jungle  only  at  the  demand 
of  sleep  or  honey,  as  certain  swifts  and  hummingbirds,  others 
sped  thither  at  the  summons  of  carrion.  Some  attended  the 
course  of  army  ants,  content  to  be  guided  by  the  erratic 
migration  of  these  insects.  Finally  there  were  those  unrep- 
resented in  any  northern  zone  which  lived  out  their  existence 
among  the  highest  tree-tops,  courting,  nesting,  feeding, 
sleeping  in  an  aerial  world  which  at  present  is  all  but  un- 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA  93 

known  to  us.  To  emphasize  by  reiterating  what  I  have  writ- 
ten, in  other  words  we  drag  a  tiny  dredge  along  the  ocean 
bed,  and  painfully  draw  to  the  surface  a  few  fragmentary 
organisms,  which  often  burst  in  our  rarified  element.  We 
see  a  company  of  fluttering  forms  high  overhead — one  to 
two  hundred  feet  above  the  ground — and  our  guns  bring 
down  a  swirling,  bedraggled  fluff  which  was  a  bird,  whose 
throat  uttered  one  of  the  strange  songs  which  we  just  heard, 
whose  nest  and  eggs  or  young  are  somewhere  far  aloft.  We 
hold  in  our  hand  an  instant's  cross-section  of  an  exceedingly 
interesting  life,  which  in  the  jungle  played  a  part  full  of 
significance.  And  we  realize  that  until  we  offset  gravitation 
and  establish  stations  of  observation  in  the  tops  of  some  of 
these  giant  trees,  our  ignorance  of  this  roof  of  the  jungle 
must  remain  complete. 

Future  work  will  reveal  some  very  interesting  facts  in 
regard  to  the  home  ranges  of  jungle  birds.  For  the  first 
week  or  two  all  seemed  more  or  less  confused,  and  the  time 
and  place  of  meeting  with  definite  species  a  matter  of  luck. 
But  little  by  little  clarity  came  from  the  twilight,  and  I  be- 
gan to  perceive  system  and  regularity.  A  certain  bend  in 
the  trail  always  revealed  a  quartet  of  white-capped  mana- 
kins,  regardless  of  their  breeding  season,  and  toward  dusk 
I  was  certain  of  finding  them  working  their  way  toward  a 
dense  tangle  of  bush  ropes.  In  the  mid-day  heat,  on  the 
contrary,  they  almost  invariably  perched  in  a  certain  medium 
tree,  open  to  the  east  at  the  edge  of  the  jungle.  Parrots 
were  even  more  definite  about  the  time  and  place  of  roosting, 
but  their  feeding  habits  were  less  sure.  The  wandering 
flocks  of  small  birds  seemed  to  be  the  least  definite,  they 
appeared  to  wander  at  will,  but  comparing  accumulated 
notes  I  began  to  see  a  certain  rhythm  of  direction,  an  orien- 
tation to  points  of  the  compass  and  to  the  beginning  and  the 
end  of  the  day  which  assuredly  had  some  meaning.  When 
I  think  of  the  searchers  for  carrion,  of  the  weaving  flight 
of  swifts  insect-hunting  in  the  open  sky,  of  the  followers  of 


94  TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

army  ants,  it  is  quite  unreasonable  to  attempt  to  explain 
their  daily  movements  by  any  controlling  factor  but  that  of 
the  chance  of  appeasing  hunger  and  of  the  meteorologically 
influenced  dispersal  of  insects.  But  the  search  for  food  once 
past,  the  life  of  the  bird  came  under  some  more  definite  con- 
trol again,  and  a  succession  of  more  or  less  predicable  reac- 
tions. These,  I  think,  will  be  very  worthy  of  study  and  tabu- 
lation, as  important  factors  in  the  evolution  of  the  ever- 
changing  adaptations  and  readjustments,  which  have  result- 
ed in  the  complex  of  life  as  we  find  it  in  the  jungle  today. 

In  the  case  of  a  fixed,  occupied  nest,  the  range  of  the 
owner  often  differed  from  corresponding  conditions  in  the 
north,  by  reason  of  the  excessive  altitudinal  zones.  Both 
parents  may  have  spent  their  free  time  almost  directly  over- 
head, and  yet  so  high  up  as  to  have  been  almost  unrecog- 
nizable. I  have  sat  and  watched  a  nest  for  an  hour  without 
seeing  any  trace  of  the  bird  until  I  happened  to  glance  up- 
ward where  both  were  seen  at  once,  revealed  by  their  action, 
identified  with  the  high  power  stereo  glasses.  In  the  course 
of  extensive  observation  it  will  I  think  be  possible  in  time 
to  plot  certain  daily,  if  not  hourly  habits — wanderings,  court- 
ship areas,  feeding  zones,  points  of  lookout.  Yet  I  do  not 
mean  in  any  way  to  depreciate  the  free  will  and  individual- 
ity of  birds,  only  that  their  lives,  like  those  of  ourselves,  are 
regulated  by  many  factors,  known  and  unknown,  whose  de- 
tection will  be  useful  to  our  great  ulterior  purpose.  The 
home  range  points  this  belief. 

The  daily  migration  may  be  taken  as  an  excellent  exam- 
ple of  the  diurnal  rhythm  of  which  I  have  spoken,  the  pliable 
yet,  more  or  less  set  mold  within  which  the  day's  activities 
take  place.  These  regular  diurnal  movements  of  birds  I 
have  termed  migrative  because  they  were  concerned  with 
colonies,  or  flocks,  or  at  least  included  large  numbers  of  birds 
rather  than  pairs  of  individuals.  They  were  instigated  by 
two  impelling  motives,  the  search  for  food  for  the  young 


BIRD   LIFE    OF   BARTICA  95 

birds  of  a  breeding  colony,  and  the  flocking  and  flight  to 
definite  roosting  places. 

For  some  unknown  reason  many  birds  were  not  satis- 
fied to  search  for  food  near  their  nests  or  community  breed- 
ing places.  This  was  particularly  true  of  species  which  nest 
in  company.  I  remember  the  brown  pelicans,  which  breed  on 
Pelican  Island  in  Florida,  regularly  flew  over  great  stretches 
of  good  fishing  area,  to  some  chosen  distant  spot,  perhaps 
twenty  to  forty  miles  away  up  the  coast.  Caciques  and  other 
tropical  birds  which  breed  in  colonies  have  a  similar  habit. 
Xot  far  from  Kalacoon  a  colony  of  red-backed  caciques  had 
been  established  for  many  years,  directly  over  an  Indian 
benab.  These  birds  flew  inland  diagonally  up  the  Mazaruni 
to  some  part  of  the  jungle  to  which  I  was  unable  to  trace 
them.  One  could  take  one's  stand  along  this  route  and  be 
certain  within  a  few  minutes  of  seeing  a  cacique  going  or 
returning.  The  path  was  a  definite  one,  over  some  trees, 
beneath  the  top-most  foliage  of  others,  in  one  place  through 
an  immense  hoop-like  loop  of  liana.  This  was  quite  differ- 
ent from  the  food  migrations  which  I  shall  soon  mention. 
These  birds  were  carrying  food,  both  vegetable  and  animal, 
to  their  young,  and  only  a  firmly  fixed  habit  of  taking  the 
same  path  had  perpetuated  this  unnecessary  consumption  of 
time  and  energy.  The  sharp  outlines  of  the  aerial  trail 
frayed  out  in  the  vicinity  of  the  colony,  and  birds  approached 
their  nests  at  will.  But  a  hundred  yards  away,  all  converged 
sharply,  focussing  on  the  narrow  pathway  high  in  air. 

The  roosting  flights  of  tropical  birds  will  ultimately 
demand  separate  special  treatment.  I  shall  touch  only  upon 
the  habits  of  three  or  four  species  which  roosted  in  the  clumps 
of  bamboo  near  the  river  bank  and  close  to  the  house  in  the 
rubber  plantation.  The  habit  was  as  regular  and  inflexible 
as  any  seasonal  migration,  and  in  those  species  which  asso- 
ciated in  dense  flocks,  the  birds  seemed  to  lose  all  individu- 
ality and  to  become  imbued  with  a  united  flock  spirit,  which 
influenced  all  simultaneously,  synchronously,  as  one  bird. 


96  TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH   GUIANA 

The  phenomena  was  more  complicated  than  at  first  ap- 
peared, for  it  was  not  always  a  mere  gradual  assembling  of 
birds  at  some  favorite  roost,  where  one  by  one  they  arrived, 
selected  a  perch  and  put  their  heads  under  their  wings.  This 
is  the  habit  of  the  English  sparrow,  in  New  York  City, 
where  some  maple  tree  may  become  the  nightly  roosting 
place  of  many  hundreds.  After  the  breeding  season  is  past 
the  giant  caciques  approached  most  closely  to  some  such 
method.  They  fed  singly  during  the  day,  but  even  toward 
afternoon  the  individual  showed  no  gradual  sign  of  ceasing 
to  feed,  or  thought  of  roost,  until,  without  warning,  the  bird 
suddenly  took  to  flight  and,  following  a  direct  line,  set  out 
for  the  distant  mango  tree  or  clump  of  bamboo.  As  he  flew, 
another  and  even  a  third  bird  would  probably  come  in  sight, 
headed  for  the  same  point,  but  there  was  never  any  recogni- 
tion or  effort  to  turn  aside  to  join  the  fellow  species.  Singly 
the  great  black  and  green  birds  came  in,  and  singly  they 
settled  to  roost  on  the  swaying  bamboos,  whose  smooth  stems 
precluded  attack  from  any  terrestrial  creature,  and  whose 
proximity  to  the  clearing  and  human  habitation  eliminated 
the  other  dangers  to  which  they  would  be  exposed  in  a  jungle 
tree.  An  interesting  detail  was  the  wariness  of  these  giant 
orioles  in  the  day  time.  Except  during  their  nesting  season 
it  was  very  difficult  to  approach  within  gunshot.  But  as 
dusk  settled  down,  other  emotions — the  anxiety  for  a  safe 
roost,  the  tempered  desire  for  the  companionship  of  their 
own  fellows  during  the  long  tropical  nights — these  increased, 
and  gradually  inhibited  the  fear  of  man  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  birds  choose  a  roost  at  his  very  doors. 

Another  point  of  interest  in  the  evening  gathering  of 
the  clan  of  giant  caciques  was  the  derivation  of  the  various 
members.  As  well  as  I  could  determine,  about  a  score  of 
birds  gathered  every  night.  It  was  an  easy  matter  to  watch 
them  come  in,  as  they  were  visible  a  considerable  distance 
away,  and  from  their  size  and  flight  not  to  be  confused  with 
any  other  species.  Most  came  from  up  the  shore,  three  or 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA  97 

four  due  north  from  the  distant  forest,  and  three — probably 
a  single  family — flying  west  from  Keow  Island.  Two 
months  ago,  there  was  a  colony  of  nine  inhabited  nests  in  a 
single  tree  on  this  island,  so  this  trio  of  birds  must  have  been 
strongly  affected  by  some  reason  or  habit,  to  desert  their 
brethren  wherever  they  may  have  roosted,  and  fly  to  so  great 
a  distance  every  evening. 

An  advance  in  roosting  ceremonial  was  presented  by  the 
smooth-billed  anis.  Shortly  before  sunset  when  these  birds 
were  scattered  about  the  clearing,  they  ceased  feeding  and 
in  the  small  flocks  or  family  groups  in  which  they  are  always 
found,  they  collected  at  the  tops  of  the  low  shrubs.  Here 
they  climbed  about  in  their  aimless  way,  fluttering  awkward- 
ly, whalooping  to  one  another,  until  dusk  had  begun  to  close 
down.  One  by  one  they  then  began  their  loose- jointed, 
steady,  beating  flight,  and  if  another  lot  of  anis  was  seen 
below,  the  first  group  would  often  stop  and  alight.  Then 
there  would  be  more  confusion,  more  chatter,  more  aimless 
clambering  about  the  branches,  around  and  even  over  each 
other.  At  last  the  roosting  flight  would  be  taken  up  again, 
this  time  direct,  and  the  flock  of  black  cuckoos  would  tum- 
ble headlong  into  the  bamboos,  to  begin  another  period  of 
fuming  and  perpetual  readjustment,  before  darkness  put  an 
end  to  the  day's  activity  of  these  weird,  inexplicable 
creatures. 

To  parrakeets,  going  to  roost  was  a  rite",  not  to  be 
performed  singly  as  with  the  caciques,  nor  lightly  and  with 
lack  of  dignity  ani-fashion.  Toward  late  afternoon  the 
small  companies  of  these  birds,  which  since  morning  had 
been  alternately  feeding  and  screeching  high  up  in  the  tree- 
tops  of  the  jungle,  ceased  from  their  two  chief  activities  and 
rising  as  if  at  the  word  of  command,  whirred  swiftly  toward 
some  unusually  high  tree.  I  found  three  of  these  junctions 
or  assembling  places,  and  at  first,  thought  I  had  discovered 
the  real  roost  of  these  birds.  Two  of  the  trees  were  gigantic 
moras,  whose  topmost  leaves  must  have  been  little  short  of 


98  TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

two  hundred  feet  above  the  jungle  floor.  But  these  places 
were  only  recruiting  or  half-way  stations.  One  tree  was  not 
far  from  the  edge  of  the  jungle  south  of  Kalacoon  House. 
To  this,  about  five  o'clock,  or  earlier  if  the  day  were  cloudy, 
the  parrakeets  began  to  come  in  flocks  of  six  to  twenty.  But 
no  matter  what  the  size  of  the  flocks,  it  always  consisted  of 
an  even  number  of  individuals,  and  although  the  birds  flew 
sometimes  so  compactly  that  their  wings  almost  touched,  it 
was  invariably  possible  to  detect  the  still  closer  segregation 
which  indicated  mated  pairs  of  these  affectionate  little  be- 
ings. Flock  after  flock  dashed  into  the  tree,  silently  as  a 
rule,  with  individual  bickering  and  chattering  after  they  had 
alighted.  When  many  had  arrived  from  all  directions,  even 
from  the  edge  of  the  jungle,  toward  which  their  ultimate 
flight  would  again  take  them,  a  period  of  silence  ensued,  and 
the  sharpest  scrutiny  failed  to  distinguish  a  single  bird 
among  the  green  leaves.  Then  at  an  instant's  signal,  some 
reaction  to  a  stimulus  too  delicate  for  our  senses  to  detect, 
the  whole  company  of  several  hundred  birds  was  up  and  off 
like  a  whirlwind,  all  screaming  their  hardest.  To  an  ob- 
server below,  they  were  out  of  sight  in  an  instant,  but  on 
other  days  I  observed  the  same  lot  of  birds  from  a  hill-top 
in  the  clearing  and  could  then  watch  their  subsequent  actions. 
They  did  not  fly  direct,  but  mounted  high  in  air  and  made 
severed  magnificent  circles,  a  half-mile  or  a  mile  in  diameter. 
The  spirit  of  the  flock  would  seem  to  have  complete  posses  - 
sion.  Occasionally,  when  a  few  parrakeets  would  dash  down- 
ward toward  the  bamboos,  if  the  majority  willed  to  go  on, 
these  would  swerve  upward  again  for  another  great  whirling 
circle.  Finally  as  if  drawn  into  an  irresistible  vortex,  all 
banked  sharply  and  spiralled  downward  and  into  a  tall  tree 
near  the  bamboos.  This  was  the  last  resting  place,  and  after 
a  few  moments,  the  mass  of  parrakeets  again  rose  and 
pitched  into  the  bamboos  for  the  night.  Not  a  rustle  of  leaf 
nor  the  slightest  whisper  marked  their  presence  when  once 
they  had  entered  the  dense  foliage.  Sometimes  several  large 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA  99 

flocks  came  one  after  the  other,  and  each  evening  a  dozen  or 
more  individuals  appeared  flying  steadily  across  from  the 
opposite  shore  of  the  Mazaruni. 

The  details  of  daily  habits  such  as  these,  which  we  found 
strongly  developed  in  many  birds  other  than  caciques,  anis 
and  parrakeets,  may  prove  ultimately  of  fundamental  sig- 
nificance in  working  out  the  origin  of  more  extensive  migra- 
tions, whether  considered  as  tropisms  or  conscious  actions. 

During  the  winter  months  about  thirty  species  of  birds 
migrate  from  the  United  States  or  farther  north  to  British 
Guiana.  In  the  Bartica  district  we  observed  only  seven  of 
these,  the  Esquimo  curlew,  yellowlegs,  spotted  and  solitary 
sandpipers,  yellow  warblers,  purple  martins  and  barn  swal- 
lows. The  purple  martins  and  all  the  waders,  except  the 
spotted  sandpipers  left  early  in  March,  but  the  yellow  war- 
blers lingered  until  April  10.  Families  of  spotted  sandpi- 
pers were  teetering  along  the  Mazaruni  shallows  in  early 
May — the  young  still  in  unspotted  garb,  although  the  adults 
had  completed  their  spring  molt.  The  barn  swallows  lingered 
amazingly  late,  and  those  which  we  shot  on  June  1  were  in 
perfect  condition  and  ready  to  nest  in  the  near  future. 
The  last  one  flew  past  on  June  1C,  making  its  way  leisurely 
in  a  northward  direction.  These  late  birds — we  saw  prob- 
ably a  dozen  in  June — were  certainly  neither  cripples  nor 
abnormal  as  to  breeding  condition.  The  one  exception  was 
a  spotted  sandpiper  shot  on  July  9,  which  was  emaciated 
although  in  good  plumage,  and  the  only  abnormal  condition 
was  inflammation  of  some  of  the  ovarian  tissue. 

I  can  speak  less  certainly  of  the  seasonal  migration  of 
native  birds,  as  at  least  two  successive  years  and  much  'more 
than  five  months  are  necessary  for  exact  data  on  this  point. 
The  few  examples  I  shall  mention  serve  chiefly  to  point  our 
ignorance  of  these  more  or  less  local  movements.  I  shall 
refer  to  them  again  under  breeding  season.  In  the  case  of 
birds  nesting  alone  there  is,  not  uncommonly,  between  the 
rearing  of  successive  broods,  a  short  migration  quite  away 


100         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

from  the  nesting  locality.  When  we  arrived  at  Kalacoon 
House  early  in  March  a  pair  of  moriche  orioles  was  nesting 
in  a  royal  palm  a  few  feet  from  our  laboratory  windows. 
There  were  two  eggs  in  the  nest,  one  of  which  we  took,  as 
it  was  new  to  science.  The  other  hatched  and  the  young  bird 
flew.  After  this  another  nest  was  built  and  the  two  young 
were  reared.  Accompanied  by  both  young,  the  moriches 
then  left  suddenly  and  for  three  weeks  were  not  seen.  Then 
quite  as  abruptly,  the  three  birds  returned  and  spent  much 
time  about  the  palm  and  during  the  latter  half  of  June  and 
early  July  remained  in  and  about  the  clearing.  About  mid- 
July  they  began  again  to  gather  materials  for  a  nest  in  the 
palm. 

In  some  cases  birds  which  nest  in  colonies  leave  simul- 
taneously and  scatter  singly  over  the  country.  Other  spe- 
cies keep  together  and  drift  about,  guided  only  by  the  search 
for  food.  This  synchronous  impulse  to  leave  the  colony  is 
so  strong  that  it  may  result  in  a  number  of  the  young  being- 
left  to  starve  in  the  nests,  the  flocking  and  migrating  instinct 
overcoming  that  of  the  parental.  Food  is  an  important 
cause  of  local  migration  and  may  operate  over  a  few  miles, 
where  the  birds  concentrate  on  some  one  fruit  tree,  or  it  may 
influence  all  the  members  of  certain  species  or  families  in 
the  country,  which  then  shift  over  large  areas  of  the  colony. 
The  movement  of  parrots  and  parrakeets  coastwards  in  the 
mango  season  is  an  excellent  example  of  this. 

Nowhere  in  the  world  do  we  find  such  extremes  of  the 
social  instinct  as  among  birds  of  the  tropics.  And  not  only 
among  birds  considered  as  a  class,  but  even  within  the  limits 
of  small  groups  such  as  genera.  When  we  have  sufficient 
data  to  make  a  thorough  resume  of  the  social  instinct,  we 
doubtless  shall  find  that  any  one  species  may  run  the  gamut 
from  a  solitary  life,  to  the  close  association  of  a  mated  pair, 
and  finally  become  a  member  of  a  compact  flock,  all  within 
a  few  months.  But  considered  in  general,  certain  types  of 
birds  fall  naturally  into  various  groups  of  relative  sociability. 


BIRD   LIFE    OF   BARTICA 


101. 


This  means  that  month  after  month,  in  the  course  of  many 
encounters,  I  came  to  think  of  this  species  as  essentially  soli- 
tary, of  that  as  always  being  within  sight  or  sound  of  its 
mate,  while  a  third  would  never  be  seen  except  in  a  flock  of 
its  fellows.  For  the  purpose  of  this  classification  I  divided 
the  birds  of  Bartica  into  about  sixty  tentative  groups,  which 
fell  into  four  categories,  first,  those  which  were  essentially 
solitary  at  least  for  many  months  of  the  year,  and  in  their 
habits  of  feeding  and  roosting ;  second,  those  which  appeared 
to  be  paired  throughout  the  year  and  were  usually  seen  in 
couples  or  in  company  with  one  or  two  young  birds;  third, 
birds  which  spend  much  of  their  life  in  small  flocks,  usually 
nesting  in  colonies  of  moderate  size  and  always  feeding  in 
company ;  fourth,  a  few  notable  species  .which  were  eminent- 
ly gregarious  and  usually  nested  and  fed  and  roosted  in  large 
flocks : 


Tinamou 

Jungle  Pigeons 

Terns 

Waders 

Herons 

Snakebirds 

Vultures 

Hawks 

Rails 

Curassows 

Guans 

Chachalacas 

Partridges 

Ground  Doves 

Caracaras 

Anis 

Swallow  Puffbirds 


SOLITARY 

Owls 

Kingfishers 

Xighthawks 

Hummingbirds 

Trogons 

Motmots 

Cuckoos 

Barbets 

PAIRS 
Kites 
Macaws 
Parrots 
Toucans 
Woodpeckers 
Antbirds 
Manakins 

SMALL  FLOCKS 

Swallows 

Finches 

Jays 


Jacamars 

Puffbirds 

Gold  birds 

Cotingas 

Woodhewers 

Quadrille-birds 


Wrens 

Thrushes 

Vireos 

Honey-creepers 

Tanagers. 

Orioles 

Flvcatchers 


Giant  Caciques 
Grackles 


102         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH  "GUIANA 
LARGE  FLOCKS 

Trumpeters     Swifts  Fork-tailed  Flycatchers 

Parrakeets       Smaller  Caciques       Blackbirds 

This  association  of  grades  of  social  instinct  had  many 
more  points  of  interest  than  the  mere  statistical  appearance 
would  indicate.  I  shall  discuss  one  only,  that  of  voice,  which 
had  a  close  bearing  upon  the  relative  gregariousness. 

Of  the  twenty-two  groups  with  solitary  habits,  seven 
were  decidedly  inhabitants  of  open  country,  where  they  could 
readily  see  one  another,  and  in  these  the  voice  was  more  or 
less  negligible.  Two  out  of  the  seven,  vultures  and  snake- 
birds,  lacked  it  altogether,  while  the  Guiana  representatives 
of  terns,  waders,  herons,  hawks  and  kingfishers  seldom  made 
themselves  heard.  Hummingbirds,  while  usually  silent,  had 
considerable  vocal  possibilities  for  their  size,  but  their  mar- 
velous power  of  flight  doubtless  usurped  many  of  the  ne- 
cessities of  loud  intercommunication.  Of  the  fourteen  re- 
maining groups  all  were  inhabitants  of  dense  jungle  and 
without  exception  possessed  of  remarkable  vocal  powers. 
These  had  an  interesting  generic  resemblance  in  that  the 
tones  of  the  songs  or  calls  were  uniformly  loud  and,  in  the 
majority  of  cases  staccato,  or  with  an  insistent  rhythm.  To 
anyone  familiar  with  these  birds  in  life  it  is  sufficient  to  men- 
tion tinamou,  jungle  pigeons,  owls,  goatsuckers,  trogons, 
motmots,  cuckoos,  barbets,  jacamars,  puff  birds,  goldbirds, 
cotingas  and  woodhewers,  to  recall  memories  that  first  are 
aural  and  then  optical.  To  this  the  quadrille-bird  must  be 
added,  a  wren  whose  jungle  life  and  solitary  habits  have 
divorced  it  from  the  rest  of  its  diminutive  fellows,  and  lent 
to  its  voice  the  startling  staccato  quality  so  characteristic  of 
jungle  birds,  without  depriving  it  of  any  of  the  sweetness 
which  characterizes  the  songs  of  other  wrens.  It  is  worthy 
of  note  that  the  members  of  three  of  these  groups  were 
nocturnal,  the  cause  of  reduction  of  visual  communication 
here  being  astronomical,  not  vegetative! 


BIRD   LIFE    OF   BARTICA  103 

The  birds  which  lived  in  pairs  and  families  were,  for 
the  most  part,  well  provided  writh  vocal  organs,  which  they 
used  to  good  effect.  Their  songs  and  call-notes  had,  how- 
ever, not  so  much  penetrating  quality,  intended  to  cover 
great  distance,  as  characterized  the  voices  of  the  solitary 
ones.  In  almost  none  was  there  the  sustained  repetition  or 
rhythm  found  among  the  birds  of  the  first  category.  Cha- 
chalacas  were  an  exception,  but  proving  the  rule,  for  they 
were  truly  arboreal,  and  only  by  their  adaptive  ability  had 
they  drifted  from  the  jungle  and  taken  instant  advantage 
of  the  secondgrowth.  The  chief  point  of  interest  in  this 
series  was  the  distinction  between  the  bird  notes  of  the  jun- 
gle and  those  of  the  clearing.  The  indescribable  vocal  out- 
bursts of  guans  and  caracaras,  the  emotional  expression 
voiced  by  macaws,  parrots  and  toucans  need  only  to  be  men- 
tioned. On  the  other  hand  ground  doves,  wrens,  thrushes, 
vireos,  tanagers  and  orioles — most  of  them  representative 
of  temperate  groups  of  birds — filled  the  clearings  with  sweet 
calls  and  sustained  musical  songs,  reminiscent  of  northern 
fields  and  woods  and  sharply  contrasted  with  the  more  primi- 
tive sounds  produced  by  birds  typical  of  the  tropical  jungles. 

The  voice  was  little  developed  among  birds  living  in 
flocks,  both  smaller  aggregations  such  as  rails,  anis,  swallow 
puff  birds,  swallows,  finches,  giant  caciques  and  jays,  and 
those  associated  in  large  communities  such  as  trumpeters, 
swifts,  smaller  caciques,  fork-tailed  flycatchers  and  black- 
birds. Notable  exceptions  were  parrakeets  which  some- 
times seemed  to  be  all  voice.  The  swallow  puffbirds  had 
departed  from  the  habits  and  mode  of  life  of  their  jungle 
relatives  and  usually  lived  in  small  colonies,  and  the  fork- 
tailed  flycatchers,  showing  no  unusual  traits  during  the 
nesting  season,  developed  most  remarkable  gregarious  habits 
immediately  afterwards,  and  during  the  molting  season 
roamed  about  the  country  in  flocks  of  hundreds,  roosting  in 
some  specially  selected  spot,  but  during  the  day  drifting 
about  wherever  there  was  good  hunting.  A  solitary  trum- 


104         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

peter  or  parrakeet  or  red-breasted  blackbird  was  an  unthink- 
able phenomenon,  although  at  least  in  the  case  of  the  first 
two,  the  birds  remain  paired  for  life. 

There  is  another  type  of  sociability,  that  between  dif- 
ferent species,  and  in  the  jungle  this  was  one  of  the  most 
common  phenomena  and  has  been  noticed  by  almost  every- 
one who  has  spent  any  time  there.  The  hosts  of  species  of 
small  and  medium  sized  birds  drifted  together  when  their 
nesting  season  was  past  and  roamed  the  jungle  in  small 
bands.  It  was  remarkable  how  many  different  kinds  were 
to  be  found  in  each  little  gathering.  Sometimes  when  such 
a  flock  worked  toward  and  across  a  glade  it  was  possible  to 
make  an  approximately  complete  census.  I  have  counted 
twenty-eight  birds  in  a  flock  of  this  kind,  including  twenty - 
three  distinct  species.  The  association  reminded  me  strongly 
of  birds  migrating  at  night.  There  was  the  same  steady 
drift  in  one  direction  and  the  same  constant  intercourse  by 
means  of  soft  chirps  and  twitters,  woodhewer  calling  to  fly- 
catcher, and  manakin  to  antbird. 

Reviewing  the  whole  host  of  Bartica  birds,  we  are  im- 
pressed with  the  tremendous  extremes,  not  even  approached 
by  the  avifauna  of  a  corresponding  temperate  region.  In 
size,  for  example,  our  specimens  ranged  from  the  pygmy 
amethyst  hummingbird  less  than  three  inches  from  beak  to 
tail,  which  probed  the  corollas  for  tiniest  of  insect  food,  to 
the  great  harpy  eagle  over  a  yard  in  length,  with  talons  ca- 
pable of  striking  down  any  sloth  or  monkey  of  the  jungle. 

A  word  as  to  color,  more  to  indicate  our  line  of  investi- 
gation in  this  direction  than  to  provide  any  satisfactory  the- 
sis for  the  solution  of  this  tremendously  interesting  factor  of 
life.  Working  with  the  same  methods  with  which  I  judged 
of  protective  coloration  among  the  pheasants,  I  was  able  to 
divide  the  Bartica  birds  into  graded  groups  with  a  fair  de- 
gree of  assurance.  My  estimate  of  protective  coloration  was 
based  on  the  action  of  the  birds  themselves  at  the  approach  of 
danger.  A  bird  which  flew  at  once,  either  to  a  point  of  van- 


BIRD   LIFE    OF   BARTICA 


105 


tage  where  it  could  see  clearly  about  it,  or  flying  on  out  of 
sight  was  plain  evidence  of  lack  of  protective  coloring,  at 
least  in  its  own  instinctive  estimation.  If  it  squatted  or 
"froze"  either  for  a  moment  or  until  we  had  crept  up  to  with- 
in a  few  feet,  I  felt  that  it  unconsciously,  but  surely,  count- 
ed upon  being  overlooked,  or  confused  with  its  surroundings. 
This  to  my  mind,  is  the  only  infallible  test  which  we  may 
apply  with  confidence  to  the  consideration  of  this  much  dis- 
cussed phenomenon.  Again  I  offer  a  division  of  the  same 
bird  groups  based  on  this  distinction : 


UNPROTECTED 

Terns 
Jacanas 
White  herons 
Vultures 
Caracaras 


Kites 

Macaws 

Kingfishers 

Swifts 

Hummingbirds 

Anis 

Toucans 

Swallow  puffbirds 

Woodpeckers 

Flycatchers 

Swallows 

Wrens 

Caciques 

Blackbirds 

Orioles 

Jays 


MALES 
UNPROTECTED 

Bellbirds 

Cotingas 

Finches 

Honey-creepers 

Tanagers 


PROTECTED 

Tinamou 

Curassows 

Guans 

Chachalacas 

Partridges 

Jungle  Pigeons 

Doves 

Rails 

Waders 

Sun-bitterns 

Colored  herons 

Owls 

Parrots 

Parrakeets 

Motmots 

Goatsuckers 

Cuckoos 

Trogons 

Barbets 

Jacamars 

Puffbirds 

Antbirds 

Woodhewers 

Manakins 

Goldbirds 

Thrushes 

Vireos 


106         TROPICAL   WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

It  was  of  considerable  significance  to  analyze  the  vari- 
ous causes  which  sustained,  if  indeed  they  had  not  brought 
about,  the  lack  of  necessity  for  protective  coloring.  Among 
the  twenty-odd  groups  enjoying  this  freedom  there  were  six 
very  evident .  factors  which  compensated  the  birds  for  con- 
spicuousness.  Caracaras  could  revel  in  almost  solid  black, 
kites  in  black  and  white  and  hawks  in  all  sorts  of  pigments 
and  patterns,  since  they  themselves  were  pursuers,  and  hence 
all  but  immune  from  serious  danger  of  direct  attack.  De- 
generate offshoots  from  these,  the  vultures  claimed  shame- 
less immunity  by  reason  of  their  odor  and  unpalatability. 
Size  and  strength  enabled  the  egrets  to  thrive  while  garbed 
in  snowy  white,  and  the  terrible  beaks  of  the  macaws  rarely 
failed  to  defend  them  against  whatever  peril  was  aroused  by 
advertisement  of  their  harlequin  plumage.  Sheer  pugnacity 
stood  a  number  of  the  groups  in  good  stead,  the  terns,  isolated 
as  they  were  up  these  rivers,  the  spur-winged  jacanas,  a  sin- 
gle female  of  which  I  have  seen  standing  off  repeated  darts 
of  a  small  falcon;  kingfishers  and  woodpeckers  whose  beaks 
function  normally  in  such  unlike  mediums,  yet  are  united  in 
virile  and  successful  defense.  Orioles  and  jays  are  proverbi- 
ally good  fighters,  while  flycatchers  are  the  policemen  of  the 
bird  world  and  scream  to  scorn  every  approach  of  falcon  or 
hawk. 

Numbers  were  brought  to  bear  in  the  case  of  trumpet- 
ers, toucans,  caciques,  anis  and  blackbirds,  although  as  a 
matter  of  fact  the  two  latter  could  offer  but  little  concerted 
attack  and  usually  preferred  flight  to  valor,  diving  headlong 
into  bushes  or  reeds.  The  aberrant  swallow  puffbirds  es- 
caped by  swift,  skillful  dodging,  appearing  to  outdistance 
any  hawk  with  ease,  and  the  swifts,  swallows  and  martins 
did  the  same,  while  the  active  little  wrens  were  comparatively 
safe  in  their  underbrush  preserves.  Hummingbirds  lived  in 
a  veritable  fourth  dimension  of  safety,  thanks  to  their  insect- 
like  flight. 


BIRD   LIFE    OF   BARTICA  107 

Twenty-seven  groups  of  birds  I  classed  in  general  as 
protectively  colored,  that  is,  I  have  seen  numbers  of  each 
of  these  groups  freeze  motionless  as  I  passed  by,  or  when  a 
hawk  or  some  other  direct  source  of  danger  appeared.  Some 
of  them,  when  held  in  the  hand  or  examined  in  a  museum 
case,  would  never  be  considered  as  protected  by  pigment,  and 
in  these  instances  the  marvelous  kaleidoscope  of  the  jungle, 
plus  absolute  motionlessness,  was  their  safeguard. 

Of  birds  directly  protected  by  their  pigments  and  pat- 
terns, tinamou,  partridges  and  goatsuckers  were  saturated 
with  the  brown  and  buff  essences  of  the  jungle  floor.  Wood- 
hewers  had  drawn  over  themselves  the  screen  of  reddish- 
brown  and  dull  lichen  spots  of  the  tree-trunks.  The  black 
and  white  contrasty  shadows  of  the  dim  mid- jungle  sheltered 
the  curassows,  guans,  jungle  pigeons,  sun-bitterns,  owls, 
goldbirds,  manakins  and  thrushes.  Finally  the  green  foliage 
of  the  jungle  roof  was  reflected  from  the  plumage  of  par- 
rots, parrakeets  and  vireos.  In  the  clearing,  chachalacas, 
ground  doves,  rails  and  cuckoos  were  protected  in  their  vari- 
ous niches  of  life,  waders  and  colored  herons  less  well  con- 
cealed, put  their  trust  far  more  in  immobility. 

The  remaining  jungle  birds,  although  not  plainly  en- 
vironmentally colored,  yet  trusted  their  lives  to  a  long  chance 
of  being  passed  unobserved.  Among  these  I  found  motmots, 
trogons,  barbets,  jacamars  and  puffbirds.  To  take  one  of 
these  from  a  museum  drawer  would  leave  no  option  but  to 
call  it  conspicuous.  To  see  it  quail  momentarily  as  I  pre- 
tended to  pass  and  to  realize  the  verj^  apparent  difficulty  of 
detecting  its  white  spots  or  metallic  back  or  yellow  sunlit 
breast  in  this  optical  tower  of  babel  was  to  feel  certain  that 
other  creatures  desiring  its  death  more  than  I,  must  also 
have  difficulty  in  distinguishing  it.  The  great  group  of  ant- 
birds  was  fascinating  in  the  individuality  of  its  members  and 
collectively  defied  any  specific  classification.  Some,  like  the 
flycatchers  of  the  clearing,  were  self-appointed  guardians  of 
the  jungle,  and  with  bravery  and  unlimited  curiosity  exam- 


108         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

ined  any  stranger  and  commented  on  all  his  doings.  Others 
iroze  motionless  until  one  had  passed  from  view ;  others  flew 
at  once  to  the  tree-tops  or  to  some  distant  safer  part  of  the 
jungle. 

Still  other  groups  exhibited  a  sexual  distinction  and  in 
considering  them  as  protected  or  unprotected  I  had  to  con- 
sider the  rights  of  both  males  and  females.  These  gave  add- 
ed emphasis  to  the  correctness  of  my  theory  of  protective 
coloring,  for  the  actions  of  the  two  sexes  were  in  perfect 
accord  with  their  diversity  in  coloration.  It  was  an  easy 
matter  to  creep  beneath  a  tree  where  a  female  or  young  male 
bellbird  was  calling.  Natural  selection  or  whatever  we  may 
call  it,  has  striped  the  plumage  green,  and  with  such  a  pro- 
tection the  bird  can  and  does  concentrate  its  whole  attention 
on  those  mighty  utterances.  But  a  snow  white  male  bellbird 
is  too  wary  for  more  than  a  glimpse.  Other  cotingas,  such 
as  the  pompadour  chatterer  and  many  honey-creepers  and 
tanagers,  came  under  the  same  class.  Manakins,  although 
the  frequent  invisibility  of  the  parti-colored  males  demanded 
their  inclusion  with  the  protected  birds  of  the  mid- jungle, 
yet  shared  this  section  too,  as  one  saw  far  more  of  the  females 
and  young  males  than  of  the  adult  cocks,  although  there  was 
not  the  slightest  reason  to  think  that  there  was  any  actual 
numerical  disparity  in  the  sexes.  In  the  open  clearing,  the 
grassbirds  and  finches  illustrated  the  same  sexual  distinction, 
and  one  could  measure  by  yards  the  facility  of  close  approach 
to  the  little  drab-colored  hens,  in  comparison  to  the  readiness 
with  which  the  black,  white  and  chestnut  cocks  took  to  wing. 

Omitting  hawks,  owls,  vultures  and  five  piscivorous 
groups,  the  remaining  forty-eight,  in  the  matter  of  food,  fell 
into  three  unequal  divisions;  twelve  per  cent  were  wholly 
vegetarian,  feeding  chiefly  on  nuts,  seeds,  berries  and  forest 
fruits.  These  were  jungle  pigeons,  ground  doves,  macaws, 
parrots,  parrakeets  and  toucans.  More  than  fifty  per  cent 
were  carnivorous,  including  both  seeds  and  insects  in  their 
diet ;  while  less  than  thirty-eight  per  cent  were  wholly  insec- 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA  109 

tivorous.  It  is  unquestionable  that  a  more  thorough  study  of 
the  birds  would  add  others  to  the  carnivorous  list.  One  of  the 
most  interesting  things  about  tropical  birds  was  their  catholic 
diet,  the  failure  of  fiVcatchers  to  be  satisfied  with  flies  or 
grassbirds  with  the  seeds  of  grasses.  It  was  quite  hopeless 
to  attempt  to  identify  more  than  one  or  two  of  the  many 
nuts  and  seeds  which  I  found  in  crops,  although  some  were 
of  remarkable  shape  and  structure.  The  names  of  many  of 
the  largest  forest  trees  themselves  are  not  known  to  botanists, 
and  their  flowers  and  fruit  were  wholly  unidentifiable. 
"Fleshy  green  fruit  with  small  yellow  currant-like  seeds" 
must  suffice,  until  some  method  is  found  for  the  botanist  to 
overcome  gravitation  and  do  his  collecting  in  the  tree-tops. 
On  the  jungle  floor  we  found  only  a  maze  of  fallen  blossoms, 
berries,  seeds  and  nuts  which  might  have  been  the  product 
of  tree,  liana,  air-plant,  or  some  nearby  shrub  rooted  in  a 
lofty  earthen-filled  hollow. 

No  trace  of  a  butterfly  or  moth  was  found  in  any  of 
the  four  hundred  stomachs  examined.  Once  I  saw  a  martin 
attack  and  disable  a  freshly  emerged  green  and  black  day- 
flying  moth  (Urania  bpisduvali),  but  I  am  in  doubt  whether 
this  was  done  for  food,  or  from  nervousness,  as  the  bird  was 
driving  all  martins  and  other  flying  creatures  away  from  a 
nestling  which  had  just  climbed  out  upon  a  perch.  Irides- 
cent beetles  were  not  uncommon  items  of  diet,  and  green  and 
brown  mantids  were  present  in  a  half  dozen  instances.  Adult 
elaters  formed  the  principal  food  of  innumerable  nighthawks, 
and  stagbeetles  of  the  poor-me-one.  The  yellow-throated 
caracara  instead  of  being  a  scavenger  as  he  is  reputed,  sated 
himself  with  seeds  and  insects.  Two  great  eagles,  one  the 
harpy,  had  been  feasting  on  monkeys,  and  a  trio  of  swallow- 
tailed  kites  which  were  slain  because  of  their  suspected  orni- 
thophagous  habits,  proved  a  complete  alibi  and  insured  sanc- 
tuary for  their  successors  by  their  last  meal,  which  consisted 
of  small  wild  fruits  and  large  grasshoppers. 


110         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

As  in  the  jungles  of  the  Far  East,  the  uplands  of  Bur- 
ma and  the  coastlands  of  Ceylon  and  Java,  termites  or  white 
ants  formed  the  dominant  food  of  many  of  the  insect-eaters. 
And  at  the  beginning  of  the  rains  when  the  toothsome,  slow- 
flying  winged  males  and  queens  came  forth  in  their  myriads, 
bird  life  seemed  to  increase  many  fold,  and  the  anis  and  fly- 
catchers and  wrens  forgot  all  fear  in  their  excitement  at  the 
new  found  manna. 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  remarkable  food  migra- 
tions, both  local  and  on  a  large  scale.  When  we  have  more 
carefully  correlated  data  we  shall  find  that  this  phase  of 
life — the  search  for  food — well  deserves  the  first  place  in 
the  three  great  objects  of  organic  existence  on  the  earth. 

Problems  were  opened  up  in  every  direction.  For  ex- 
ample, the  vulture's  search  for  food:  These  birds  were  ex- 
ceedingly rare  and  never  by  any  chance  did  careful  search 
of  the  sky  reveal  one.  But  when  we  had  killed  and  skinned 
sloth  or  howling  monkey  or  hacka  tiger,  deep  in  the  jungle, 
within  two  or  three  days  the  vultures  would  be  gathered  to- 
gether in  the  dimness  of  the  jungle  floor.  If  a  king  vulture 
were  present,  even  in  the  juvenile  black  plumage,  all  the  oth- 
ers waited  patiently.  If  he  were  absent,  two  or  three  yellow- 
necked  birds  would  be  pulling  at  the  carcass.  Experiments 
which  I  have  made  in  the  past '  seemed  to  prove  conclusively 
that  these  birds  practically  lack  the  sense  of  smell.  But  in 
these  cases  the  carcasses  were  absolutely  invisible  from  any 
angle  of  the  sky.  Did  the  birds  hear  the  buzzing  of  flies? 
Did  they  mark  the  direct  droning  flight  of  the  great  blue 
scarabs?  This  year's  observations  revealed  no  clue. 

I  have  noticed  no  such  friendly  association  of  birds  and 
animals  in  the  South  American  tropics  as  exists  between  the 
pheasants  of  the  Far  East  and  the  small  deer  and  other 
harmless  jungle  creatures.  Even  the  trumpeters  kept  to 
themselves  and  the  agoutis — those  rabbits  of  the  jungle — 
were  solitary  feeders.  The  friendly  flocking  of  different 

1  New  World  Vultures,  Zoological  Society  Bulletin,  No.  32,  1908,  p.  467. 


BIRD   LIFE    OF   BARTICA  111 

species  of  small  birds  of  which  I  have  written  elsewhere  was, 
as  usual,  very  marked,  and  this  free-masonry  and  mutual 
warning  of  danger  made  a  fraternity  of  all  the  lesser  birds 
of  the  forest.  Tropical  birds  react  to  squeaking  as  quickly 
as  those  of  any  temperate  region,  and  when  one  member  of 
a  flock,  such  as  a  toucan  or  antbird,  fell,  its  companions 
often  followed  and  fairly  mobbed  one.  In  the  jungles  of 
the  East  the  babblers  made  stalking  most  difficult  by  an- 
nouncing to  all  within  earshot  the  presence  of  an  intruder. 
Here  the  caracaras  were  the  self-appointed  watchmen,  with 
macaws  ably  seconding  their  efforts.  But  the  caracaras  had 
the  impudence  and  fearless  naivete  possessed  by  vultures 
without  the  dumbness  of  those  birds.  Fortunately  they  were 
not  abundant,  but  when  one  was  watching  or  .creeping  to- 
ward some  interesting  nesting  or  feeding  bird,  the  air  was 
sometimes  rent  with  the  fearful  shrieks  and  screams  of  a 
family  of  caracaras.  Then  some  inquisitive  antbird  was  sure 
to  investigate  and  the  object  of  one's  search  was  very  likely 
to  move  suddenly  elsewhere. 

Of  two  score  species  of  mammals  which  inhabited  our 
small  area  of  observation,  about  half  included  birds,  their 
young  and  eggs  in  their  diet.  Ten  groups  of  birds  were 
themselves  ornithophagous,  lizards  and  iguanas  took  nest- 
lings and  eggs  on  every  possible  occasion;  monster  toads 
doubtless  longed  for  the  opportunity  which  Nature  denied 
them  of  climbing  nestwards,  while  perai  snapped  at  drinking 
swallows  and  fishing  kiskadees  and  dragged  wounded  birds 
under  water,  the  instant  they  touched  the  surface.  Crabs, 
tarantulas,  ants  and  giant  water-bugs  all  claimed  a  certain 
share.  I  have  known  ants  to  kill  nestlings  within  the  space 
of  an  hour's  absence  on  the  part  of  the  parents.  Even  the 
bete  rouge  took  toll,  collecting  by  the  thousand  on  the  necks 
of  birds  such  as  tinamou,  where  they  produced  bad  sores, 
and  besides  made  the  lives  of  many  nestlings  miserable.  The 
elements  caused  a  far  greater  percentage  of  deaths  than  did 
wind  and  heat  and  rain  in  temperate  regions.  Besides  this, 


112         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

wholly  unexpected  tragedies  occurred,  great  leaves  falling 
upon  and  blotting  out  eggs  and  young,  fruit  growing  into 
the  nests  and  smothering  the  nestlings.  And  as  if  this  were 
not  enough,  parents  occasionally  left  their  healthy  young 
without  apparent  reason  and  commenced  a  new  nest  nearby, 
the  first  brood  perishing  miserably  in  full  view  of  their  cal- 
lous, unnatural  parents.  Cuckoos  and  cowbirds  were  always 
waiting  the  opportunity  to  parasitize  suitable  nests,  and  not 
infrequently  birds  would  wantonly  destroy  each  others'  nests 
or  those  of  other  species. 

These  and  a  host  of  other  dangers,  resulted  in  a  per- 
centage of  mortality  which  was  appalling.  Toward  the  end 
of  my  stay,  when  I  wished  a  photograph  of  eggs  and  nest, 
I  never  dared  leave  them  for  a  day,  but  took  them  home  if 
the  camera  had  been  left,  and  replaced  them  at  my  next 
visit.  This  mortality  fell  into  place  with  the  notes  I  have 
made  in  past  years  in  distant  parts  of  the  tropics,  and  gained 
tremendously  in  significance  when  I  considered  it  in  connec- 
tion with  such  subjects  as  breeding  seasons  and  numbers  of 
eggs  and  young. 

The  roosting  places  of  birds  are  little  known  and  yet, 
since  I  have  begun  to  devote  considerable  time  to  discovering 
and  studying  them.  I  have  found  that  they  possess  signifi- 
cance in  many  ways  other  than  being  the  nearest  branch  on 
which  to  rest  in  sleep  throughout  the  night.  I  have  else- 
where mentioned  the  interesting  change  of  habits  of  such 
birds  as  parrots,  parrakeets  and  caciques,  which  at  nightfall 
desert  the  jungle  for  a  safer  roost  in  the  open  clearing  near 
human  habitations.  In  another  chapter  I  have  taken  up  in 
detail  the  importance  of  arboreal  and  terrestrial  roosting 
habits  of  the  two  genera  of  tinamou  found  near  Bartica. 
Of  the  roosting  of  many  groups  of  birds  I  know  nothing. 
The  dusk  of  the  jungle  would  shut  down  and  until  they 
began  calling  and  feeding  early  next  morning,  they  ceased 
to  exist  as  far  as  I  was  concerned. 


BIRD   LIFE    OF   BARTICA  113 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 

FIG.  32.     GREAT  JACOBIN  HUMMINGBIRD  (FLORISUGA  MELLIVORA) 
ON  ITS  ROOSTING  PERCH. 

Curassows  and  guans  roosted  high  up  in  the  forest  and 
judging  by  sign,  they  resorted  to  the  same  place  week  after 
week.  Rails,  during  the  nesting  season,  selected  a  place  flat 
among  the  reeds,  immediately  behind  the  nest  and  facing 
away  from  it.  Thus  the  bird  which  was  not  on  the  eggs  was 
able  to  watch  for  danger  from  the  rear.  The  terns  here- 
abouts roosted  singly  on  rocks  in  mid-stream.  Late  one 
evening  in  the  last  rays  of  light  I  saw  one  of  them  settle 
down  with  head  under  wing  on  a  rock  which,  a  few  hours 
later,  would  be  overlapped  by  the  rising  tide.  I  wonder  what 
happened  when  the  bird  felt  itself  gently  lifted  from  its 
support.  If  the  water  were  as  quiet  as  when  I  last  saw  the 
bird  it  would  hardly  have  been  awakened.  In  the  season  of 
migration  the  little  families  of  sandpipers  kept  the  terns 


114         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

company  and  swayed  all  night  on  one  leg  in  the  center  of 
the  great  Mazaruni.  The  nighthawks,  reversing  things,  spent 
their  days  on  the  ground,  but  the  poor-nie-ones,  as  I  discov- 
ered many  years  ago.  kept,  like  the  owls,  to  the  thicker 
branches  of  low  trees. 

Crouched  in  the  heart  of  a  great  hollow  tree  I  learned 
that  tropical  swifts  sought  shelter  from  both  heat  and  rain 
in  the  same  place  where  they  roosted.  It  was  a  wonderful 
sight  to  see  the  bats  leaving  as  the  swifts  eddied  downward 
through  the  foliage,  silhouetted  against  the  afterglow.  At 
mid-day  there  was  always  much  squeaking  of  bats  and  chat- 
tering of  swifts  as  the  birds  whirled  downward  for  their  siesta 
and  disturbed  the  slumbers  of  the  flittermice. 

Hummingbirds,  like  butterflies,  roosted,  perched  to  the 
tips  of  very  slender  twigs,  usually  in  some  shrub  or  vine  bare 
of  leaves,  and  they  made  no  secret  of  their  couch,  but  sat  and 
twittered  volubly  to  the  world  before  they  followed  the 
habit  of  the  great  harpy  eagles  and  tucked  their  heads  behind 
their  absurd  wings.  They  roosted  singly,  each  atom  of  feath- 
ers isolated  in  the  great  closed  amphitheater  of  the  jungle's 
mid-growth,  never  more  than  two  or  three  on  one  shrub.  Anis 
on  the  contrary,  crowded  to  roost  in  a  dense  mob,  sometimes 
two  and  three  deep,  as  if  there  were  not  room  enough  in  this 
tropical  universe.  Toucans,  like  most  birds  which  nested  in 
holes,  preferred  to  roost  outside,  where  they  folded  them- 
selves up  like  a  paper  parcel,  first  the  monstrous  beak  laid 
lengthways  along  the  center  of  the  back,  then  the  inner  edge 
of  the  wings  flapped  up  against  it  for  side  packing,  and 
lastly  the  gaudy,  hinged  tail  folded  back  over  all.  Thus  the 
rain  was  not  shunted  off  but  apparently  was  aided  in  soak- 
ing the  plumage;  the  bird  became  a  feathered  ball,  and  all 
the  nocturnal  requirements  of  these  strange  birds  were  ful- 
filled— which  is  the  same  as  saying  that  we  haven't  the  faint- 
est idea  why  this  remarkable  habit  exists ! 

Neither  do  we  know  why  kiskadees  and  most  other  fly- 
catchers roosted  singly  or  at  most,  two  or  three  in  a  tree, 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA  115 

while  fork-tailed  flycatchers  crowded  into  a  single  mango 
until  every  branch  was  trembling  with  their  flutterings. 
The  caciques,  like  the  rails,  prefer  to  roost  near  home,  and 
just  to  use  up  surplus  energy  the  male  would  build  a  separ- 
ate dummy  nest,  without  an  egg  cavity,  or  else  a  little  awn- 
ing of  interlaced  fibres  at  one  side  of  his  rightful  nest.  Here 
he  would  sleep  while  his  mate  brooded  deep  in  the  purse 
below.  I  believe  the  moriche  orioles  did  the  same  thing,  but 
I  had  only  half-proofs  of  this. 

The  nesting  season  and  the  broods  of  tropical  birds  are 
fraught  with  significance,  and  I  have  chosen  to  treat  separ- 
ately of  them,  delaying  publication  until  my  notes  are  round- 
ed out  and  my  theories  vindicated. 

The  completion  of  my  fragmentary  notes  on  these  many 
phases  of  bird  life  in  the  tropics  will,  I  trust,  yield  data  of 
still  greater  importance,  and  wider  application.  My  notes 
on  courtship  and  fighting  this  year  were  exceedingly  meagre. 
The  most  common  courtships  which  we  noticed  were  the 
wing-plays  and  dances  of  jacanas,  the  dignified  pheasant- 
like  display  of  the  sun-bittern  and  the  contortions  of  the 
giant  caciques.  In  the  clearing  one  never  tired  of  watching 
the  comical  bouncing  dance,  with  vocal  accompaniment,  of 
the  little  pee-zing  grassbird.  My  isolated  notes  hint  that 
there  are  many  courtships  as  complicated  and  worthy  of 
investigation  as  that  of  the  powies  or  curassows.  * 

As  to  fighting,  from  the  point  of  view  of  rivalry,  the 
hummingbirds  easily  held  first  place.  Two  seemed  hardly 
ever  to  meet  without  a  passage  at  arms,  often  clinching  in 
mid-air  and  whirling  around  as  they  fell,  like  a  single  wound- 
ed bird.  When  all  the  hummingbird  world  seemed  gathered 
at  the  flowering  of  the  cashew  trees,  some  of  them  would 
forego  feeding  hour  after  hour,  so  busy  were  they,  driving 
away  others  from  the  tree.  Certain  species  seemed  to  hold 
in  especial  hatred  certain  other  species,  while  still  others, 
both  larger  and  smaller,  were  allowed  to  pass  and  feed  un- 

'Our  Search  for  a  Wilderness,  pp.  332-338. 


116         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

molested.  The  animosity  was  racial  or  specific,  not  indiscrim- 
inate. When  striving  for  the  possession  of  the  nesting  box, 
two  martins  sometimes  fell  with  a  thump  to  the  ground, 
locked  tight  together,  and  lay  there,  disheveled  and  with 
flying  feathers,  pecking  viciously  at  one  another. 

All  tribes  of  Guiana  Indians  have  certain  beliefs  and 
legends  concerning  birds.  The  goatsuckers  and  owls  are 
considered  birds  of  ill  omen,  their  calls  presaging  illness  or 
death.  Others,  such  as  bellbirds,  kingfishers  and  eagles,  are 
thought  to  predict  rain.  Brett  gives  two  stories  which  are 
supposed  to  account  for  the  present  colors  and  patterns  of 
birds,  a  short  cut  to  evolution  which,  on  days  of  discouraged 
investigation,  we  would  heartily  wish  were  true ! 

An  Arawak  hunter  captured  a  vulture,  daughter  of 
Annuanna.  This  latter,  so  Roth  tells  us  in  his  account  of 
the  Animism  and  Folk-lore  of  the  Guiana  Indians,  is  the 
carrion  crow  or  caracara.  The  vulture  laid  aside  her  feath- 
ers, appeared  before  him  as  a  beautiful  girl,  became  his  wife, 
carried  him  above  the  clouds,  and  after  much  trouble,  per- 
suaded her  father  and  family  to  receive  him.  All  went  well 
until  he  expressed  a  wish  to  visit  his  aged  mother,  when  his 
new-found  family  discarded  him  and  set  him  on  the  top  of 
a  very  high  tree,  the  trunk  of  which  was  covered  with  for- 
midable prickles.  He  appealed  to  all  the  living  creatures 
around.  Finally,  spiders  spun  cords  to  help  him,  and  flut- 
tering birds  eased  his  descent  so  that  at  last  he  reached  the 
ground  in  safety.  Then  followed  his  efforts,  extending  over 
several  years,  to  regain  his  wife.  At  length  the  birds  es- 
poused his  cause,  assembled  their  forces,  and  bore  him,  as 
their  commander,  above  the  sky.  At  last  he  was  slain  by 
a  valiant  young  warrior,  resembling  him  in  person  and  fea- 
ture, who  turned  out  to  be  his  own  son.  The  legend  ends 
with  the  conflagration  of  the  House  of  the  Royal  Vultures. 
The  kiskadee  flycatcher,  though  a  valiant  little  bird,  disliked 
the  war,  and  bandaged  his  head  with  white  cotton,  pretend- 
ing to  be  sick,  but  being  detected,  was  sentenced  to  wear  it 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA  117 

continually.  He  is  noted  for  his  hostility  to  hawks  and  other 
large  birds,  which  he  attacks  incessantly  when  on  the  wing. 
The  warracabra  or  trumpeter  bird  and  the  sakkasakkali,  a 
kingfisher,  quarreled  over  the  spoil  and  knocked  each  other 
into  the  ashes.  The  former  arose  with  patches  of  grey,  while 
the  other  became  grey  all  over.  The  Akawai  Indians  add 
to  this  that  the  trumpeter  flew  down  into  an  ant's  nest  and 
before  he  could  escape,  his  legs,  which  formerly  had  been 
fat  and  plump,  were  picked  quite  clean.  On  the  same  occa- 
sion the  marudi  or  guan,  thinking  some  glowing  hot  embers 
to  be  an  insect,  swallowed  them  and  so  got  his  fiery  throat. 
The  owl  discovered  among  the  spoil  a  package  done  up  with 
care,  which  he  found  to  contain  darkness  only;  since  which 
he  has  never  been  able  to  endure  the  light  of  day. 

Another  story  relates  in  a  most  convincing  manner  the 
method  by  which  birds  got  their  present  plumage.  Once 
upon  a  time  there  was  a  water  serpent,  a  huge  creature  with 
a  most  brilliant  skin  of  red,  green,  black  and  white  in  extra- 
ordinary patterns.  He  became  such  a  terror  to  all  other 
living  creatures  that  the  men  and  birds,  who  were  friends 
in  those  days,  combined  forces  to  destroy  him,  and  the  crea- 
ture's skin  was  promised  to  the  first  one  who  made  him 
come  out  of  the  pool.  But  all  were  afraid  to  tackle  him 
except  the  snakebird,  who  darting  down  into  the  water, 
drove  an  arrow  through  his  neck — an  arrow  fastened  by  a 
string  to  a  tree  on  the  bank,  by  means  of  which  he  was 
finally  drawn  to  land,  where  he  was  skinned.  Snakebird 
claimed  the  skin,  and  the  warriors,  never  thinking  he  would 
be  able  to  carry  it  away,  told  him  he  could  have  it.  He 
nodded  to  the  other  birds,  who,  each  seizing  part  of  the 
edge,  managed  to  lift  it  off  the  ground  and  bear  it  to  a 
secluded  spot,  where  Snakebird  told  them  they  could  divide 
it  among  themselves,  each  to  take  the  part  that  he  had  just 
helped  to  carry.  Each  bird  carried  his  load  home  on  his 
back,  and  ever  since  has  been  marked  by  hues  which  the  sec- 
tion of  serpent's  skin  that  he  carried,  happened  to  bear — 


118         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  &i/  W.  B. 

FIG.  33.    NUPEE,  OUR  AKAWAI  INDIAN  HUNTER,  BRINGING  IN| 
AGOUTIS  AND  CURASSOWS. 

parrots  green,  macaws  scarlet  and  gold,  and  so  on.  But 
Snakebird,  as  his  share,  got  only  the  snake's  head  with  its 
sombre  tints;  however,  he  remained  content  with  this. 

The  usefulness  to  man  of  native  Guiana  birds  may  be 
divided  into  three  heads — ornaments,  pets  and  food.  Thanks 
to  most  excellent  laws  which  have  been  passed  and  are  well 
enforced,  all  exportations  of  plumage  for  millinery  purposes 
have  ceased,  although  for  some  birds  almost  too  late,  for  scar- 
let ibises  are  a  rare  sight  even  on  the  coast.  The  ornamenta- 
tion then  is  confined  to  the  Indians  of  the  interior  who  deco- 
rate their  arrows,  head-dresses  and  medicine  bags  with  bril- 
liant feathers.  The  birds  whose  plumage  is  chiefly  used  are 
macaws,  Amazon  parrots,  curassows,  toucans,  the  inner  wing 
plumes  and  iridescent  breasts  of  trumpeters,  cocks-of-the- 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA  119 

rock  and  the  rich  wine-colored  pompadour  cotingas.  About 
Bartica  the  Indians  are  too  busy  working  cassava  or  getting 
sourie  nuts  or  fishing,  to  pay  much  attention  to  unnecessary 
decoration. 

As  food,  the  birds  of  Guiana  form  an  important  item 
in  the  dietary  of  the  Indians  or  indeed  of  anyone  living  in 
or  travelling  through  the  interior.  During  four  months  of 
one  period  of  work  at  Kalacoon  House,  one  Indian  with  a 
double-barrelled,  twenty-eight  gauge  shotgun  easily  kept 
us  in  meat,  and  meat  which  to  our  palate  was  far  superior 
to  the  supplies  which  at  first  we  had  sent  up  from  George- 
town. He  worked  in  a  radius  of  only  a  mile  or  two,  and 
yet  seemed  to  make  no  impression  on  the  amount  of  game 
still  present  in  this  area.  Sixty  per  cent  of  this  game  con- 
sisted of  birds,  of  which  tinamou,  curassows,  guans  and 
trumpeters  formed  the  chief  items,  these  birds  being  better 
known  colonially  by  the  names  of  maams,  powies,  maroudis 
and  warracabras.  Among  the  mammals  the  most  valuable 
for  food  were  deer,  peccaries,  monkeys,  tapirs  and  pacas; 
agoutis  or  accouris  are  the  rabbits  of  the  tropical  jungles. 
After  we  had  shot  over  fifty  in  this  limited  district  their  num- 
bers seemed  to  be  as  great  as  ever.  Keeping  in  mind  the  care- 
fully preserved  shooting  grounds  of  our  Eastern  States,  the 
elaborate  licenses,  the  delicately  estimated  head  of  game  al- 
lowed to  each  hunter,  it  seemed  too  good  to  be  true,  to  find 
in  the  world,  only  a  possible  eight  days  from  New  York,  such 
an  unspoiled  hunting  ground,  with  enough  and  to  spare.  The 
game  hog  is  unknown,  as  there  is  no  market  for  his  ill-gotten 
wares.  We  never  wasted  a  single  specimen.  Besides  its 
flesh  for  the  mess,  each  bird  was  weighed,  measured,  exam- 
ined for  molt  and  parasites,  skinned,  sexed  and  its  food  re- 
corded, and  whenever  desired,  parts  of  the  skeleton  and  soft 
anatomy  preserved.  Surely  no  killed  specimens  more  fully 
fulfilled  their  destiny  of  usefulness  to  man !  The  flesh  kept 
us  in  good  health,  and  the  entrails  went  to  feed  our  captive 
animals  and  birds  of  prey. 


120         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

Any  question  of  taste  in  food  is  too  individual  for  gen- 
eral discussion,  but  we  could  never  decide  which  of  the  prin- 
cipal types  of  birds  we  preferred.  The  game-birds  of  Gui- 
ana are  excelled  by  no  pheasants  of  Asia  nor  grouse  of 
Europe. 

The  question  of  extermination  of  wild  birds  is  hardly 
likely  to  arise  in  British  Guiana  as  long  as  the  present  very 
strict  laws  are  in  force.  The  conditions  on  the  licence  to 
collect  wild  birds  for  scientific  purposes  read  as  follows : 

The  Holder  of  this  Licence  is  required : 

( 1 )  To  submit  all  birds  collected  for  inspection  by  the 
Director  of  Science  and  Agriculture  as  well  as  at  the  Mu- 
seum by  the  Curator. 

(2)  To  furnish  the  Director  of  Science  and  Agricul- 
ture with  a  statement  showing  the  kinds  of  birds  and  the 
number  of  each  kind  obtained,  and  the  localities  in  which 
they  were  collected. 

(3)  To  specify  the  persons  to  whom,  or  the  institu- 
tion to  which,  his  birds  have  been  sold  or  forwarded,  whether 
in  the  Colony  or  abroad. 

(4)  To  keep  books  for  inspection  by  the  Director  of 
Science  and  Agriculture,  the  Inspector  General  of  Police 
or  any  officer  deputed  in  writing  by  either  of  them  to  do  so, 
showing  what  kinds  of  birds  have  been  killed,  the  number 
of  each  kind,  and  the  localities  in  which  they  were  collected ; 
where  the  birds'  skins  have  been  removed  to,  and  how;  and 
the  final  disposal  of  such  birds'  skins,  supported  by  receipts 
or  acknowledgments  from  the  purchasers. 

(6)  This  licence  must  be  returned  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  at  the  expiry  of  the  period  for 
which  it  is  issued  or  when  an  extension  of  its  period  is  sought 
for. 

The  law  for  the  protection  of  wild  birds  recognizes  two 
classes,  those  absolutely  protected  and  those  protected  only 
during  a  close  season.  I  present  the  two  lists  as  being  of 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA 


121 


importance  to  anyone  interested  in  the  preservation  of  wild 
life. 

BIRDS   PROTECTED  THROUGHOUT  THE  YEAR: 


Ant  Thrushes  and  Bush- 
shrikes 

Babbling  Thrushes 
Barbets 
Black  Witches 
Bunyas  and  Mockingbirds 

(except  Rice  birds) 
Campaneros 
Carrion  Crows 
Cassiques 
Cocks-of-the-Rock 
Cormorants 
Cotingas 
Cranes 
Creepers 
Cuckoos 
Ducklars 
Egrets 

Falcons  and  Hawks 
Finches 
Fin-foots 
Flamingoes 
Flycatchers 
Frigate  Birds 
Gannets 
Goatsuckers 
Grass  Birds 
Grebes 

Ground  Doves 
Hawks 
Herons 
Hoatzins 
Hummingbirds 


Jacamars 

Jays 

Kingfishers 

Kiskadees 

Kites 

Manakins 

Martins 

Motmots 

Owls 

Parrakeets 

Pelicans 

Petrels 

Rails  and  Crakes 

Screamers 

Sugar  Birds 

Sun  Bitterns 

Shrikes 

Sparrows 

Swallows 

Swifts 

Tanagers 

Thrushes 

Toucans 

Terns  and  Gulls 

Trogons 

Troupials 

Tyrant  Shrikes 

Vireos  and  Greenlets 

Vultures,  (except  in  villages) 

Warblers 

Woodhewers 

Woodpeckers 

Wrens 


122         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 
BIRDS   PROTECTED  FROM   APRIL   I  TO   SEPTEMBER  I: 

Bitterns  Quail  and  Partridges 

Chachalacas  Snipe 

Curassows  Spoonbills 

Curlews  Spur-winged  Jacanas 

Guans  Storks 

Jabirus  Thick-kneed  Plover 

Limpkins  or  Caraows  Tinamou 

Parrots  and  Macaws  Trumpeters  or  Warracabras 

Plovers 

BIRDS  PROTECTED  FROM  APRIL  I  TO  JULY  I: 

Ducks  (except  in  rice  fields) 
Doves  (other  than  Ground  Doves) 
Pigeons 

BIRDS  PROTECTED  FROM  JANUARY  I  TO  SEPTEMBER  1 1 

Ibises 

There  is  a  curious  psychological  agreement  among  a 
number  of  important  South  American  birds,  so  pronounced 
and  uniform  that  it  is  difficult  not  to  consider  it  as  being  a 
link  between  them,  although  structurally  they  are  quite  dis- 
similar. This  is  an  acceptance  of  captivity,  or  rather  a  vol- 
untary association  with  man,  which  is  astounding.  If  one 
finds  a  curassow  or  trumpeter  chick,  kills  its  parents  or 
frightens  them  away  and  then  carries  it  part-way  toward 
camp,  it  will  willingly  follow  the  rest  of  the  way.  From 
that  time  on,  it  becomes  a  familiar  of  the  household  or  barn- 
yard. This  I  have  seen  in  the  case  of  Indians,  and  I  have, 
myself,  achieved  it  with  curassow  chicks.  At  Kalacoon  we 
had  a  number  of  curassows,  guans  and  trumpeters  and  all 
exhibited  this  total  lack  of  fear.  In  the  heart  of  the  jungle 
one  will  come  across  a  temporary  Indian  benab  with  a  flock 
of  some  or  all  of  these  birds  running  and  flying  about,  never 
offering  to  go  back  to  the  jungle. 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA  123 

This  is  in  strong  contrast  with  pheasant  chicks  and  other 
Eastern  gallinaceous  birds,  which  retain  their  wildness  to  the 
end  of  their  life,  never  becoming  more  than  semi-domesti- 
cated. With  these  facts  are  correlated  others  which  seem 
only  to  emphasize  them.  The  trumpeters  and  curassows, 
which  at  once  become  so  ridiculously  tame,  even  trouble- 
somely  so,  seldom  or  never  lay  eggs  or  breed  in  captivity. 
Year  after  year  passes  with  no  sign  of  approaching  breeding 
season,  except  now  and  then  a  feeble  attempt  at  courtship  on 
the  part  of  the  curassows.  No  nests  are  built,  no  eggs  laid, 
even  when  tall  trees  are  available  and  the  sticks  provided 
which  might  suggest  or  tempt  this  .performance.  The  pheas- 
ants, peafowl  and  partridges,  on  the  contrary,  too  wary  ever 
to  allow  any  caress  or  even  a  near  approach,  usually  lay 
promptly,  and  if  undisturbed,  Will  incubate  and  rear  their 
broods.  We  have  no  explanation  of  this.  It  is  a  fascinat- 
ing problem  for  the  future. 

I  was  interested  in  seeing  the  various  ways  in  which  the 
Indians  secured  wild  birds.  A  breech-loading  gun,  such  as 
that  which  I  loaned  to  our  Akawai  hunter,  was  almost  un- 
known, and  he  hunted  de  luxe,  the  envied  of  all  the  Indians 
he  met.  They  sometimes  were  the  proud  possessors  of  an 
old-fashioned  muzzle-loader,  or  in  lieu  of  this  they  used  bows 
and  arrows  and  blow-pipes.  They  seemed  poor  trappers 
and  would  choose  rather  to  wait  for  hours  at  some  likely 
place  than  to  set  springes  or  nooses. 

Next  to  any  scientific  research,  my  chief  desire  was  the 
gathering  of  live  vertebrates  to  send  north  to  the  New  York 
Zoological  Park.  When  the  coolies  heard  of  the  horde  of 
pence  and  three-pences  and  bits  available,  they  came  in  day 
after  day  with  all  sorts  of  specimens,  and  in  this  way  we  got 
a  number  of  interesting  birds.  Others  were  purchased  from 
Indians,  young  ones  we  collected  from  nests,  and  brought 
up  by  hand,  while  the  majority  were  trapped  in  cages  or 
caught  with  lime  sticks.  It  was  exciting  work,  for  we  never 


124 


TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  bj/  W.  B. 

SHIPPING  CRATES  OF  LIVE  MAMMALS,  BIRDS  AND  REPTILES 
FROM  KALACOON  LANDING. 


knew  when  some  especially  desirable  and  rare  specimen 
might  not  be  brought  in  by  an  Indian.  And  then  we  had 
to  dissemble  our  interest  and  look  upon  the  creature  with  in- 
difference and  but  slight  desire,  so  that  the  market  prices 
should  not  soar,  and  a  precedent  be  set  which  would  put 
future  treasures  beyond  our  financial  reach.  Then  there 
came  the  feeding  and  care,  the  boxing  and  shipping,  from  our 
tent-boat  to  the  river  steamer,  then  across  Georgetown  to 
the  great  ocean  liner  which  would  transport  them  north. 

The  most  searching  and  the  fairest  test  of  the  success 
of  any  live  animal  collecting  is  the  record  of  the  creatures 
which  arrive  safely  and  become  adapted  to  life  in  their  new 
surroundings.  So  I  present  the  lists  only  of  those  which 
reached  New  York  and  the  Zoological  Park  in  health. 


BIRD   LIFE   OF   BARTICA  125 

Although  this  phase  of  work  was  wholly  subordinate 
to  the  scientific  investigation  which  was  the  main  object  of 
the  Station,  we  were  able  to  add  over  three  hundred  mam- 
mals, birds  and  reptiles  to  the  collection  of  the  Zoological 
Park.  These  represent  a  total  value  of  well  over  one  thou- 
sand dollars.  They  were  as  follows : 

31  Mammals  16  Snakes 

154  Birds  8  Tortoises  and  Turtles 

3  Alligators  80  Frogs  and  Toads 

10  Lizards  13  Fish 

Without  going  into  too  great  detail,  a  few  of  the  more 
interesting  specimens  may  be  mentioned.  Three  species  of 
opossums  were  obtained,  several  pacas,  a  yaguarondi  cub, 
agouti,  ocelot,  a  very  interesting  wild  dog,  and  some  jungle 
rats  which  have  not  been  identified. 

Thirty-four  species  of  living  birds  were  sent  to  the  Zoo- 
logical Park,  of  which  seven  had  not  previously  been  ex- 
hibited. The  most  important  was  a  cock-of-the-rock  (Rupi- 
cola  rupicola),  an  uncommonly  fine  specimen,  in  full  adult 
male  plumage.  Few  cocks-of-the-rock  have  been  exhibited 
alive  in  North  America,  and  none  at  all  for  more  than  twen- 
ty-five years.  The  species  is  alleged  to  be  delicate  and  short- 
lived in  captivity,  but  this  specimen  has  as  yet  given  no 
evidence  of  frailty. 

The  cock-of-the-rock  belongs  to  the  family  Cotingidae, 
all  the  members  of  which  are  rare  in  captivity.  The  pompa- 
dour cotinga  (Xipholena  punicea),  so  far  as  records  go,  has 
never  been  exhibited  alive  before  the  arrival  of  the  specimen 
sent  to  New  York  from  the  Tropical  Station.  This  is  a 
superb  species,  the  adult  male  clad  in  gorgeous  claret,  set 
off  with  snow-white  wings.  Little  is  known  of  the  wild  hab- 
its of  this  bird,  but  even  less  of  its  viability  and  conduct  in 
captivity. 

Rails  are  always  welcome  additions  to  collections  of  liv- 
ing birds,  because  of  their  activity  and  hardiness.  The  white- 


126         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

necked  rail  (Porzana  albicollis)  although  uncommon  even 
in  museums,  was  very  abundant  about  Kalacoon,  and  three 
living  specimens  were  sent  to  New  York.  Dusky  parrots 
(Pionus  fuscus),  lavender  jays  (Cyanocorax  cay  ana),  a 
black- faced  hawk  (Leucopternis  melanops)  and  Guiana 
motmots  (Momotus  mo?nota)  complete  the  list  of  first  ac- 
cessions. Among  others  were  a  number  which  have  not  been 
exhibited  for  several  years,  including  Dufresne's  Amazon 
parrot,  red-breasted  and  yellow-headed  blackbirds,  smooth- 
billed  anis,  besides  yellow-headed  vultures,  curassows,  mo- 
riche  orioles  and  a  host  of  small  tanagers  and  seed-eaters. 
Many  unusual  frogs  and  toads  were  secured,  one  of 
which  was  a  huge  specimen  of  the  marine  toad.  'The  gro- 
tesque sharp-nosed  toad  is  as  brightly  colored  as  it  is  rare. 
The  coppery-red  five-fingered  frog  resembles  our  bull- frog, 
but  the  nursing  frogs  which  carry  their  tadpoles  on  their 
back,  are  quite  unlike  any  of  our  North  American  forms. 
Others,  of  whose  habits  we  know  little  or  nothing,  are  the 
mustached,  the  long-snouted  and  the  white-headed  frogs. 
A  five-foot  electric  eel  was  caught  in  the  Mazaruni  almost 
in  front  of  Kalacoon  and  successfully  shipped  north  in  a 
metal-lined  case.  When  received  full  force,  the  shock  from 
its  batteries  was  almost  sufficient  to  knock  a  man  off  his  feet. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


A  LIST  OF  BIRDS  OF  THE  BARTICA  DISTRICT. 

A  compilation  of  the  list  of  the  Tropical  Research 
Station  of  the  Zoological  Society  and  the  Whitely  list  re- 
veals a  total  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-one  species.  Those 
marked  with  a  star  are  new  to  the  Colony  of  British  Guiana. 
The  numbers  are  those  of  the  birds  of  South  America  by 
Brabourne  and  Chubb: 

TINAMIFORMES 

10     Guiana  Great  Tinamou....;.... Tinamus  major  (Gmel.) 

22      Pileated  Tinamou Crypturus  soui  soui  (Hermann) 

37      Variegated  Tinamou Crypturus  variegatus  (Gmel.) 

GALLIFORMES 

74  Crested  Curassow Crux  alector  Linn. 

93  Lesser  Olive  Guan Penelope  marail  (Gmel.) 

94  Greater  Blue  Guan Penelope  granti    Berlepsch. 

104  Little  Chachalaca Ortalis  motmot   (Linn.) 

130      Guiana   Partridge Odontophorus  guianensis  (Gmel.) 

COLUMBIFORMES 

149  Splendid  Pigeon Columba  speciosa  Gmel. 

152  Rufous  Pigeon Columba    rufina  rufina  Temm.  &  Knip 

156*  Plumbeous    Pigeon Columba  plumbea  plumbea  Vieill. 

161  Purple-tinted   Pigeon Columba  purpureotincta  Ridg. 

175  Larger  Grey  Ground  DoveChaemepelia  passerina  griseola    Spix. 

179  Talpacoti  Ground  Dove Chaemepelia  talpacoti   (Temm.  &  Kr\ip) 

191  Grey-fronted  Dove Leptoptila  rufaxilla  rufaxilla  (Rich.&Bern.) 

204  Red   Mountain   Dove Geotrygon  montana    (Linn.) 

RALLIFORMES 

230     Cayenne  Wood  Rail 4ramides  cajanea   (P.  L.  S.  Mull.) 

239      White-necked  Crake Porzana  albicollis  Vieill. 

251      Cayenne  Crake Crecisciis  viridis  (P.  L.  S.  Mull.) 


128         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

LARIFORMES 

319     Great-billed  Tern PnaStusa  chloropoda  Vieill. 

CHARADRIIFORMES 

381  Collared  Plover Charadrius  collaris  Vieill. 

391  Esquimo   Curlew Numenius  borealis  (Forst.) 

398  Yellowlegs   Totanus  flavlpes  (Gmel.) 

399  Solitary  Sandpiper Tringa  solitaria    Wilson. 

400  Spotted  Sandpiper Actitis  macularia  (Linn.) 

414  Brazilian   Snipe Gallinago  braziliensis  Swains. 

419  Cayenne  Snipe Gallinago  undulata   (Bodd.) 

427  Common  Jacana Jacana  spinosa    (Linn.) 

GRUIFORMES 

433      Sun-bittern Eurypyga  helias   (Pall.) 

436      Grey- winged  Trumpeter Psophia  crepitans  Linn. 

ARDEIFORMES 

445  Guiana  Ibis Theristicus  caudatus    (Bodd.) 

448  Cayenne   Ibis Harpiprion  cayennensis    (Gmel.) 

461  Cocoi  Heron Ardea  cocoi  Linn. 

463  American  Egret  Egretta  egretta  (Gmel.) 

464  Snowy   Egret Egretta  thula  (Molina) 

465  Little  Blue  Heron Florida   caerulea   caerulea     (Linn.) 

468  Agami  Heron Agamia  agami  (Gmel.) 

472  Yellow-crowned   Night 

Heron    Nycticorax  violaceus    (Linn.) 

473  Boat-billed  Heron Cochlearius  cochlearius  Linn. 

475  Pileated  Heron  Pilherodius  pileatus  (Bodd.) 

476  Guiana   Green    Heron Butorides  striata    (Linn.) 

ANSERIFORMES 
499      Muscovy   Duck Cairina   moschata    (Linn.) 

PELECANIFORMES 
554     American   Snakebird Anhinga  anhinga  Linn. 

CATHARTIFORMES 

566  King  Vulture Gypagus  papa    (Linn.) 

567  Southern  Black  Vulture Catharista  foetens   Wied. 

568  Southern  Turkey  Vulture  Cathartes  aura  aura  (Linn.) 
570      Yellow-headed  Vulture Cathartes  urubitinga  Pelz. 


BARTICA  BIRDS  129 

ACCIPITRIFORMES 

•  574     Yellow-throated 

Caracara    Ibycter  ater  (Vieill.) 

575*   Red-throated  Caracara Ibycter  americanus    (Bodd.) 

580      Yellow-headed  Caracara Milvago   chimachima   (Vieill.) 

588      Lined  Hawk Micrastur  gilvicollis    (Vieill.) 

606     Four-banded  Sparrow- 
hawk     Accipiter  bicolor  bicolor  (Vieill.) 

623      Shining   Buzzard-Hawk Asturina  nitida  (Lath.) 

625      Large-billed   Hawk Rupornis   magnirostris     (Gmel.) 

631      Brazilian  Eagle Urubitinga  urubitinga  (Gmel.) 

636      White-collared   Hawk Leucopternis  albicollis  (Lath.) 

641      Black-faced  Hawk Leucopternis  melanops  (Lath.) 

646      Guiana   Crested  Eagle Morphnus  guianensis    (Daud.) 

648      Harpy  Eagle Thrasaetus  harpyia  (Linn.) 

650  Black  and  White  Hawk- 

Eagle    Spiziastur  melanoleucus   (Vieill.) 

651  Manduit's  Hawk-Eagle SpizaHtiis  ornatus  (Daud.) 

653      Tyrant  Plawk-Eagle Spizaetus  tyrannus  (Wied.) 

655  Swallow-tailed  Kite Elanoides  forficatus    (Linn.) 

656  Everglade   Kite Rostrhamus  sociabilis  (Vieill.) 

664  Double-toothed  Hawk  Harpagus  bidentatus   (Lath.) 

665  Plumbeous  Kite Tctinia  plumbea  (Gmel.) 

671     White-throated  Bat- 
falcon    Falco  rufigularis  Daud. 

STRIGIFORMES 

688      Spectacled  Owl Pulsatrix  perspicillata  (Lath.) 

PSITTACIFORMES 

734  Scarlet  Macaw Ara  macao  (Linn.) 

735  Green- winged   Macaw Ara  chloroptera  Gray. 

750  Yellow    Conure Aratinga  solstitialis  (Linn.) 

829  Golden-winged   Parra- 

keet    Brotogeris  chrysoplerus  (Linn.) 

833  Mealy  Amazon Amazona  farinosa    (Bodd.) 

841  Yellow-headed  Amazon Amazona  ochrocephala  (Gmel.) 

844  Dufresne's   Amazon Amazona  dufresniana   (Shaw.) 

857  Blue-headed  Parrot Pionus  menstruus    (Linn.) 

868  Dusky    Parrot Pionus  fuscus  (P.  L.  S.  Mull.) 

877  Caica  Parrot Pionopsitta  caica   (Lath.) 

881*  Scopoli's     Parrakeet Urochroma  batavica    (Bodd.) 

883  Purple  Guiana  Parrot Urochroma  purpurata  (Gmel.) 

889  Black-headed  Cacique Pionites  melanocephala    (Linn.) 


130         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

COBACIIFOEMES 

895  Great  Grey  Kingfisher Ceryle  torquata   torquata     (Linn.) 

898  Great  Green  Kingfisher Ceryle  amazona  (Lath.) 

899*  Little  Green  Kingfisher Ceryle  americana   americana     (Gmel.) 

901  Spotted  Kingfisher Ceryle  inda    (Linn.) 

902  Pygmy  Rufous  Kingfisher  Ceryle  aenea  aenea    Patlas. 
908  Guiana  Motmot Momotus  momota    (Linn.) 

922  Giant  Goatsucker Nyctibius  griseus  griseus    (Gmel.) 

923  Long-tailed  Goatsucker Nyctibius  longicaudatus  (Spix.) 

935     Semi-collared  Night- 
hawk     Lurocalis  semitorquatus    (Gmel.) 

948      White-necked   Nighiha\vk..Nyctidromus  albicollis  albicollis    (Gmel.) 

964     Dusky  Nighthawk Caprimulgus  nigrescent  Cab. 

969      White-banded  Swift Streptoprogne  zonaris  albicincta     (Cab.) 

971      Short-tailed  Swift Chaetura  brachyura  Jard. 

975      Spine-tailed  Swift Chaetura  spinicauda  (Boie) 

979*   Cherrie's  Swift Chaetura  chapmani  virridipennis   (Cherrie) 

985*   Fumigated    Swift Cypseloides  fumigatus  Streub. 

988      Cayenne  Swift _ Panyptila  cayennensis   (Gmel.) 

1008      Cayenne    Hermit Phaethornis  superciliosus     (Linn.) 

1033      Longuemare's   Hermit Phaethornis  longuemareus   (Less.) 

1038      Red-vented  Hermit Phaethornis  ruber  (Linn.) 

1041      Bishop  Hermit Phaethornis  episcopus    Gould. 

1048      Broad-shafted  Sabrewing...Campylopterus  largipennis     (Bodd.) 

1058      Great    Jacobin _ ^..Florisuga  mellivora  mellivora   (Linn.) 

1107*   Trinidad  Erythronote Saucerottea  erythronota    (Less.) 

1127      Guiana  Sapphire Mylocharis  sapphirina  (Gmel.) 

1133     Blue-chinned  Sapphire Chlorestes  nolatus  (Reich) 

1172     Venezuelan  Wood- 
Nymph Thalurania  furcata  fissilis  Berl.  &  Hart. 

193      Swainson's  Hummingbird... Avocettula  recurvirostris   (Swains.) 

1194      Violet-tailed  Mango Lampornis  nigricollis  (Vieill) 

1205     Shaw's   Golden-throated 

Hummingbird    Polytmus  chrysobronchus   (Shaw) 

1208      Crimson   Topaz Topaza  pella  (Linn.) 

1404      Black-eared    Fairy Heliothrix  aurita  (Gmel.) 

Long-billed   Star-throat Anthocenus  superba  (Shaw) 

Pygmy  Amethyst Calliphlox  amethystina  (Gmel.) 

Guiana  Coquette  Lophornis  pavoninus  Salv.  &  Godm. 

TROGONES 
1458      Collared  Trogon Trogon  collaris  Vieill 

1460  Black-throated  Trogon Trogon  rufus  Gmel. 

1461  Green  Trogon Trogon  viridis    Linn. 

1470      Black-tailed   Trogon Trogon  melanurus  Swains. 


BARTICA  BIRDS  131 

COCCYGES 

1475  Dark-headed  Cuckoo Coccyzus  melacoryphus  Vieill. 

1481  Chestnut    Cuckoo Piaya  cayana  cayana    (Linn.) 

1489  Black-bellied    Cuckoo Piaya  melanogaster  (Vieill.) 

1490  Little   Rufous    Cuckoo Piaya  rutila    Illiger. 

1494  Ruf us-winged  Cuckoo Neomorphus  rufipennis  (Gray) 

1496*  Brown   Cuckoo Tapera  naevia  (Linn.) 

1498  Peacock  Cuckoo Dromococcyx  pavoninus  Pelz. 

1499  Common  Ani Crotophaga  ani  Linn. 

1500  Great  Ani Crotophaga  major  Gmel. 

SCANSORES 

1508  Black-spotted   Barbet   Capita  niger  (P.  L.  S.  Mull.) 

1527  Red-billed  Toucan Ramphastos  monilis   Mull. 

1535  Sulphur-and- White- 
breasted  Toucan Ramphastos  vitellinus  Licht. 

1543*  Black-necked  Aracari Pteroglossus  aracari  aracari   (Linn.) 

1561  Green  Aracari Pteroglossus  viridis  (Linn.) 

1569  Guiana  Toucanet Selenidera  culik  (Wagler) 

PICIFORMES 

1582      Paradise   Jacamar Urogalba  dea    (Linn.) 

1584      Common  Jacamar Galbula  galbula  Linn. 

1592      White-billed  Jacamar Galbula  albirostris  albirostris    Lath. 

1597      Black-billed  Jacamar Brachygalba  lugubris    (Swains.) 

1606      Golden  Jacamar Jacamerops  aurea   (P.  L.  S.  Mull.) 

1608  Collared  Puffbird Bucco  capensis  Linn. 

1609  Long-billed   Puffbird Bucco  macrorhynchus  Gmel. 

1615     Cayenne  Puffbird Bucco  tectus    Bodd. 

1622      Cayenne  Spotted  Puffbird  Bucco  tamatia  Gmel. 

1649      Black    Puffbird Monasa  niger  (Mull.) 

1657      Swallow   Puffbird Chelidoptera  tenebrosa  tenebrosa  (Pall.) 

1677     Yellow-throated  Green 

Woodpecker  Chloronerpes  flavigula    (Bodd.) 

1687*  Swainson's  Green  Wood- 
pecker      Chloronerpes  rubiginosus  (Swains.) 

1704      Red- fronted    Woodpecker... Me lanerpes  rubrifrons   (Spix.) 

1731      Cassin's   Woodpecker Veniliornis  cassini  (Malh.) 

1746  Hellmayr's  Woodpecker Celeus  hellmayri    Berlepsch. 

1747  Spix's   Amazonian   Wood- 

pecker     Celeus  jumana  (Spix.) 

1757  Chestnut- winged  Yellow 

Woodpecker  Crocomorphus  flavus  (Mull.) 

1760      Red-necked  Woodpecker.... Campophilus  rubricollis  (Bodd.) 

1762  Black  and  white  Wood- 
pecker   Campophilus  melanoleucus  (Gmel.) 


132         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

1770     Lineated   Woodpecker Ceaphloeus  lineatus  (Linn.) 

1794*  Scale-eared   Piculet Picumnus  minutissimus  (Pall.) 

PASSERIFORMES 
FORMICARIIDAE 
1852     Amazonian   Ringed  Gnat- 
eater    Corythopsis  anthoides  (Pucher.) 

1854      Rufus-fronted   Ant-catcherCymbilaimus  lineatus  lineatus   (Leach) 

1861      Crested  Bush-Shrike ThamnopMlus  viridis  Vieill. 

1889*  Selater's   Amazonian 

Bush-Shrike  Thamnophilus  amazonicus    Sclater. 

1908     White-barred  Bush- 
Shrike Thamnophilus  doliatus  (Linn.) 

1941      Ashy-backed   Bushbird Dysithamnus  spodionotus    Salv.   &   God. 

1947*  Slate-colored  Bushbird Dysithamnus  schistaceus   (d'Orb.) 

1952      Mouse-colored  Bushbird Dysithamnus  murinus    Scl.  &  Salv. 

1954      Saturnine    Bushbird Dysithamnus  ardesiacus  saturninus    Pelz. 

1959      Cinereous  Bushbird Thamnomanes   caesius   glaucus    Cab. 

1961      Pygmy  Antbird Myrmotherula  pygmea   (Gmel.) 

1967      Ruf us-bellied  Antbird Myrmotherula  guttata  Vieill. 

1969      Brown-bellied  Antbird Myrmopagis  gutturalis  (Scl.  &  Salv.) 

1982      White-flanked    Antwren Myrmopagis  axillaris  axillaris  (Vieill.) 

1988      Long- winged   Antbird Myrmotherula  longipennis    Pelz. 

1993      Grey-breasted  Antbird Myrmotherula  cinereiventris    Scl.  &  Salv. 

2000     Spotted-tailed  Antbird Herpsilochmus  sticturus    Salvin. 

2032*   Pied  Antwren Rhoporchilus  torquata  (Wied.) 

2039      Ash-vented  Antwren Terenura  spodioptila  Scl.  &  Salv. 

2045      White-bellied   Antwren Rhamphocaenus  albiventris    Sclater. 

2050     Grey    Ant- Wren Cercomacra  cinerascens  (Sclater.) 

2053      Bogota  Antwren Cercomacra  tyrannina    Sclater. 

2068      White-fronted    Antcatcher.Pi^  albifrons   (Linn.) 
2074     Rufous-fronted  Ant- 
catcher     Anoplops  rufigula  rufigula    (Bodd.) 

Spotwinged   Antcreeper Sclateria  leucostigma  (Pelz.) 

Cayenne    Antcreeper Myrmoderas  ferruginea  (P.  L.  S.  Mull.) 

2120      Warbling  Antcreeper Hvpocnemis  cantator  cantator  (Bodd.) 

2125     Spotted-backed  Ant- 
creeper ...  Hylophlax  poecilonota  poecilonota    Cab. 

>      Schomburgk's    Antcreeper  Hypocnemis  leucophrys  angustirostris  Cab. 
Black-chinned  Antcreeper  Hypocnemis  melanopogon  Sclater. 

2142      Spotbacked  Antcreeper Hypocnemis  naevia   (Gmel.) 

2152a   Woodcock  Antbird Rhopoterpe   torquata   torquata    Bodd. 

Black-faced    Ant-thrush Formicarius  colma  colma  (Bodd.) 

2202      Little   Ant-thrush Orallaria  brevicauda   (Bodd.) 

2209     Spotted-breasted   Ant- 

thrush     ; Orallaria  macularia  (Temm.) 


BARTICA  BIRDS 


133 


DENDROCOLAPTIDAE 

2321      Guiana   Spinetail Synallaxis  guianensis  guianensis  (Gmel.) 

2332      Yellow-throated    Spinetail  Synallaxis  cinnamomea  (Gmel.) 

2441      Pelzeln's    Automolus Automolus  turdinus  (Pelz.) 

2447*  Olive-backed  Automolus Automolus  infuscatus    Sclater. 

2448      Olive-capped  Automolus Automolus  cervicalis    Sclater. 

2464     Cinnamon-rumped 

Philydor    Philydor  pyrrhodes  (Cab.) 

2471      Dusky-vented  Philydor Philydor  erythrocercus  (Pelz.) 

2489      Brown-tailed   Xenops Xenops  genibarbis  genibarbis    111. 

2497      Black-tailed  Leafscraper....,SWertmts  caudacutus  (Vieill.) 
2505*   Lesser  Black-tailed  Leaf- 
scraper  Sclerurus  rufigularis  Pelz. 

2516     Little  Wedge-billed 

Woodhewer    ..  Glyphorhynchus  cumatus  cuneatus  (Licht.) 

2520      Vieillot's    Woodhewer Dendocincla  fuliginosa  (Vieill.) 

2527      Red-vented  Woodhewer Dendrocincla  merula   (Licht.) 

2534      Long-tailed   Creeper Deconychura  longicauda   (Pelz.) 

2539*   Spotted  Woodhewer Xiphorhynchus  guttatoides   (Lafr.; 

2547  Chestnut-rumped   Wood- 

hewer   Xiphorhynchus  pardalotus  (Vieill.) 

2548  Spotted  Woodhewer Xiphorhynchus  polystictus    Salv.  &  God. 

2559      Picine  Woodhewer Dendroplex  picus  picus  (Gmel  ) 

2594     Fulvous-throated  Wood- 
hewer   Picolaptes  albolineatus    (Lafr.) 

2605     Guiana  Curve-billed  Wood 

hewer  ....  Campylorhamphus    trochilirostris   procur- 

voides  (Lafr.) 

2617     Black-banded  Wood- 
hewer   Dendrocolaptes  plagosus  Sal.  &  God. 

2621      Buffon's   Barred   Wood- 
hewer ....  Dendrocolaptes  certhia   (Bodd.) 

TYRANNIDAE 

2686     White-shouldered  Water- 
Tyrant   -..Fluvcola  pica  (Bodd.) 

2690     White-headed  Marsh- 
Tyrant     Arundinicola  leucocephala  (Linn.) 

2743      Grey-headed  Flatbill Platyrhynchus  griseiceps  griseiceps    Salv. 

Platyrhynchus  coronatus  coronatus     Scl. 

Rhynchocyclus  sulphurescens  assimilis    Pel/,. 

2771      Rufous-tailed    Flatbill Ramphotrigon  ruficauda  (Spix.) 

2773      Grey  Tody  Flycatcher Todirostrum  cinereum  cinereum  (Linn.) 

2784      Spotted  Tody  Y\ycatcher....Todirostrum  maculatum  Desmarest 
2834      Helmeted  Pygmy  Tyrant. .Colopteryx  galeatus   (Bodd.) 


134         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

2892      Oily  Flycatcher Mionectes  oleagineus  oleagineus  (Licht.) 

2910     Grey-headed  Flycatcher Phyllomyias  griseiceps  (Scl.  &  Sal.) 

2918      Mouse-colored  F\ycakcher..Phaeomyias  murina  incomta  (Cab.  &  Hein.) 

2921      Hartlaub's   Flycatcher Ornithion  inerme    Hartl. 

2927      Latham's  Flycatcher Tyrannulus  elatus  (Lath.) 

2935      Guiana  Tyrantlet ...Tyranniscus  acer.  (Salv.  &  God.) 

2938      Yellow-vented  Flycatcher..#/a<mm  flavogaster  (Thunberg.) 
2961*   Berlepsch's  Crested  Fly- 
catcher      Elaenia  guianensis    Berlepsch. 

2964     Golden-crowned  Fly- 
catcher   Elaenia  flavivertex    Sclater. 

2977     Little  White-necked  Fly- 
catcher    Legatus  albicollis    (Vieill.) 

2981      Small-billed  Kiskadee  Myiozetetes  cayennensis  cayennensis  (Linn.) 

2986     Sulphury   Flycatcher Myiozetetes  sulphureus  (Spix.) 

2992      Guiana  Kiskadee Pitangus  sulphuratus  sulphurate  (Linn.) 

2996      Lesser  Kiskadee Pitangus  Kctor   (Licht.) 

3002      Streaked  Flycatcher Myiodynastes  maculatus  maculatus   (Miill.) 

3004      Solitary   Flycatcher Myiodynastes  maculatus  solitarius  (Vieill.) 

3017      Whiskered   Flycatcher Myiobius  barbatus  barbatus   (Gmel.) 

3025      Red-tailed   Flycatcher Myiobius  erythrurus  erythrurus   Cab. 

3040     Little  Brown  Flycatcher... .Myiobius  fasciatus  fasciatus  (Miill.) 
8050*  Leotaud's  Dusky  Fly- 
catcher   Empidochanes  fuscatus  cabanisij  Leot. 

3085      Fierce  Flycatcher Myiarchus  ferox  (Gmel.) 

8098     Varied  Streaked  Fly- 
catcher     Empidonomus  varius  varius  (Vieill.) 

3103      White-throated   Kingbird....  Tyrannus  melancholicus  satrapa  Cab  &  Hein. 
8107      Fork-tailed    Flycatcher Muscivora  tyrannus  (Linn.) 

PIPRIDAE 

3111  Orange-headed  Manakin Pipra  aureola  aureola   (Linn.) 

8116  Golden-headed  Manakin Pipra  erythrocephala  erythrocephala(Linn.) 

3120  White-Crowned   Black 

Manakin    Pipra  leucocilla  leucocilla    Linn. 

3182  Yellow-bellied   Manakin Pipra  suavissima    Salv.  &  God. 

3136  Green    Pygmy    Manakin Pipra  virescens  Pelz. 

3152  Green  Manakin Piprites  chlorion  (Cab.) 

3169  White-throated   Manakin....Coropi>o  gutturalis  (Linn.) 

8171  Crackling   Manakin Chiromachaeris  manacus  manacus    (Linn.) 

3184  Ridgway's  Manakin Scotothorus  turdinus  olivaceus  Ridgw. 

COTINGIDAE 

3200     Black-tailed  Tityra Tityra  cayana  (Linn.) 

3214      Little  Psaris Platypsaris  minor   (Lesson.) 


BARTICA  BIRDS  135 

3232  Black-capped  Thickbill Pachyrhamphus   atricapillus    Merrem. 

3238  Goldbird Lathria  cinerea  cinerea  (Vieill.) 

3243  Red-breasted  Mourner Laniocera  hypopyrrha  (Vieill.) 

3246  Greyish   Mourner Lipangus  simplex  (Licht.) 

3251  Schomburgk's    Attila Attila  brasiliensis  Lesson 

3253  Cayenne  Attila Attila  spadiceus  (Gmel.) 

3267  Red   Chatterer Phoenicocircus  carnifex   (Linn.) 

3291  Purple-breasted  Chatterer.C'o^in^a  cotinga  (Linn.) 

3293  Cayenne    Chatterer Cotinga  cayana  (Linn.) 

3297  Pompadour    Chatterer Xipholena  punicea  (Pallas.) 

3307  Dusky  Chatterer Idopleura  fusca  (Vieill.) 

3310  Purple  Fruit-crow Querula  purpurata   (Mull.) 

3317  Calfbird   Calvifrons  calvus   (Gmel.) 

3318  Bare-necked  Cotinga Gymnoderus  foetidus  (Linn.) 

3319  Bellbird Casmorhynchos  niveus  (Bodd.) 

HIRUNDINIDAE 

3326*   Bank  Swallow Riparia  riparia  (Linn.) 

3327      Variegated   Swallow Tachycineta  albiventris  (Bodd.) 

3331  Barn   Swallow Hirundo  erythrogaster  Bodd. 

3332  Purple  Martin Progne  subis  subis  (Linn.) 

3335  Grey-breasted     Martin Progne  chalybea  chalybea   (Gmel.) 

3336  Brown   Martin Progne  tapera  tapera  (Linn.) 

3337  White-banded    Swallow Atticora  fasciata  (Gmel.) 

3342  Half-belted  Swallow Atticora  cyanoleuca  (Vieill.) 

TROGLODYTIDAE 

3415  British  Guiana  Wren Thryothorus  griseigula  (Lawr.) 

3443  Guiana  House  Wren Troglodytes  musculus  clarus   Berl.  &  Hart. 

3449  Schomburgk's   House 

Wren  Troglodytes  rufulus   Cab. 

3455  Black-capped  Wren Henicorhina  leucosticta  leucosticta  (Cab.) 

3462  Quadrille-bird Leucolepia  musica  musica  (Bodd.) 

3469  White-banded  Wren Microcerculus  bambla  (Bodd.) 

TURDIDAE 

3519  White-throated  Thrush Planisticus  phaeopygus  phaeopygus  (Cab.) 

3536  Sabian  Thrush Planisticus  fumigatus  (Licht.) 

3538  Common  Thrush Planisticus  albiventer   (Spix.) 

3551  Grey-cheeked  Thrush  Hylocichla  aliciae  (Baird.) 

FIREONIDAE 

3562    Moustached  Vireo Vireo  calidris  (Linn.) 

3565      Chivi    Vireo Vireo  chivi  (Vieill.) 


136         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

3571  Grey-bellied  Woodbird Pachysylvia  griseiventris   (Berl.  &  Hart.) 

3574  Guiana  Woodbird Pachysylvia  muscicapina  (Scl.  &  Salv.) 

3589  Orange- fronted  Woodbird..Pachysylvia  luteifrons  (Sclater.) 

3597  Bonaparte's     Vireo Vireolanius  chlorogaster   Bonap. 

MNIOTILTIDAE 

3620      Yellow  Warbler Dendroeca  aestiva  aestiva  (Gmel.) 

3637      Small-billed  Waterthrush...Sei«r«j?  noveboracemis  (Gmel.) 

FRINGILLIDAE 

3714      Brazilian   Blue-Grosbeak.... Cyanocompsa  cyanea  (Linn.) 
3719     Brown-breasted 

Pygmy  Grosbeak Oryzoborus  angolensis  brevirostris    Berl. 

3722     Thick-billed 

Pygmy  Grosbeak Oryzoborus   crassirostris  crassirostris 

(Gmel.) 
3743     Chestnut-bellied  SeedeaterSporophila  castaneiventris  Cab. 

3745      Pygmy   Seedeater Sporophila  minuta  minuta   (Linn.) 

3769     Lined   Seedeater Sporophila  lineola   (Linn.) 

3770*   Black-headed  Seedeater Sporophila  bouvronides  (Less.) 

3790      Glossy  Grassquit Volatinia  jacarina  splendens    (Vieill.) 

3796     White-throated    Kernal- 

eater  Pity  his  grossus   (Linn.) 

3798  Scarlet     Kernal-eater Pitylus  erythromelas   (Gmel.) 

3799  Olive   Kernal-eater Pitylus  canadensis  canadensis  (Linn.) 

3803      Great  Saltator Saltator  maximus  maximus   (Mull.) 

3941      Red-crested  Finch Coryphospingus  cucullatus  (Mull.) 

3952      Black-throated  Cardinal Paroaria  gularis  (Linn.) 

3957      Pectoral  Sparrow Arremon  silens  (Bodd.) 

COEREBIDAE 

4021  Guiana    Bananaquit Coereba  guianensis  guianensis  (Cab.) 

4061  Turquoise  Honey-Creeper..Daems  cayana  cayana  (Linn.) 
4067  Black-backed  Honey- 
Creeper    ...  Dacnis  angelica    Bonap. 

4077  Blue  Honey-Creeper Cyanerpes  cyaneus  cyaneus  (Linn.) 

4080  Purple   Honey-Creeper Cyaerpes  caeruleus  caeruleus  (Linn.) 

4085  Green   Honey-Creeper Chlorophanes  spiza  spiza  (Linn.) 

TANAGRIDAE 

4119      White-vented  Euphonia Tanagra  olivacea  olivacea    Desm. 

4122      Violaceus   Euphonia Tanagra  violacea  (Linn.) 

4133      Cayenne  Euphonia Tanagra  cayennensis   (Gmel.) 


BARTICA  BIRDS  137 

4136      Plumbeus    Euphonia Tanagra  plumbea  (Du  Bus.) 

4165      Spotted  Tanager  '. Tangara  punctata   (Linn.) 

4188      Chestnut-headed  Tanager... Tangara  gyrola  (Linn.) 

4197      Yellow-bellied   Tanager Tangara  mexicana  mexicana  (Sclater.) 

4138      Blue-bellied    Tanager. Tanagrella  velia   (Linn.) 

4270      Blue  Tanager Thraupis  episcopus  episcopus  (Linn.) 

4280*   Eastern  Palm  Tanager Thraupis  palmarum  palmarum  Wied. 

4297      Silver-beaked   Tanager Ramphocelus  carbo  carbo  (Pall.) 

4329     Black-headed  Toothed 

Tanager  Lanio  atricapillus   (Gmel.) 

4333  Black  Tanager Tachyphonus  rufus  (Bodd.) 

4334  Lesser  White-shouldered 

Tanager  Tachyphonus  luctuosus  d'Orb.  &  Lafr. 

4339      P'ulvous-crested    Tanager. ..Tachyphonus  surinamus  surinamus    (Linn.) 

4342      Golden-crested  Tanager Tachyphonus  cristatus    intercedens     Berl. 

4429     Black-and-white    Shining 

Tanager     Lamprospiza  melanoleuca    (Vieill.) 

4432      Magpie   Tanager Cissopis  leveriana   (Gmel.) 

ICTERIDAE 

4445  Great   Black   Cacique Ostinops  decumanus  decumanus    (Pall.) 

4446  Great  Green  Cacique Ostinops  viridis  (Mull.) 

4454      Yellow-backed  Cacique  Cacicus  cela  cela  (Linn.) 

4460  Red-rumped   Cacique Cacicus  haemorrhous  haemorrhous  (Linn.) 

4466  Rice-grackle Cassidix  oryzivora  oryzivora  (Gmel.) 

4474  Glossy  Cowbird Molothrus  atronitens  Cab. 

4488  Red-breasted  Blackbird Leistes  militaris  (Linn.) 

4512  Moriche  Oriole  Icterus  chrysocephalus  (Linn.) 

4516  Black-throated  yellow 

Oriole  icterus  xanthornus  xanthornus   (Gmel.) 

4530  Little  Boat-tailed  Grackle.Holoquiscalus  lugubris  (Swains.) 

CORFIDAE 
4540      Lavender  Jay Cyanocorax  cayanus  (Linn.) 


CHAPTER  IX 

AKAWAI   INDIAN  AND  COLONIAL  NAMES  OF  BIRDS  AND 
MAMMALS  OF  BARTICA. 

As  Akawai  is  the  common  vernacular  in  use  among  In- 
dian hunters  and  those  who  have  no  knowledge  of  English, 
it  is  important  to  be  able  to  identify,  with  as  much  exactness 
as  possible,  the  names  in  the  two  languages.  I  obtained  the 
words  and  pronunciation  from  the  most  intelligent  men  I 
could  find,  and  then  tried  them  on  other  Indians  without 
warning,  getting  in  every  case  the  instantaneous  reaction  and 
recognition  which  is  proof  of  their  correctness.  My  angli- 
cization  has  been  with  the  sole  idea  of  ease  of  repetition  and 
pronunciation,  with  no  attempt  at  correct  linguistic  voweling 
or  phrasing.  The  shortcomings  of  the  English  tongue  often 
compelled  awkward  syllabication.  The  I  and  the  r  of  the 
Akawai  pronunciation  are  in  many  cases  very  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish, and  sometimes  seem  quite  interchangeable.  Unless 
otherwise  marked,  the  as  are  as  in  father.  The  r  is  almost 
invariably  rolled. 

AKAWAI  NAMES  OF  BIRDS 

Guiana  Great  Tinamou maru 

Pileated  Tinamou orri'-orri' 

Variegated  Tinamou sulima 

Crested  Curassow poweet 

Greater  Blue  Guan okla 

Lesser  Olive  Guan jcamalasac 

(palaka,  yowyan 

White-crested    Guan kuyou 

Little  Chachalaca  camalllewa 

Guiana  Partridge coolweet 

Splendid  Pigeon hurrutwema 

Mountain   Dove warramee 

Ground  Dove hellwoe 

Cayenne  Wood  Rail goatsala 


INDIAN   AND   COLONIAL  NAMES  139 

White-necked  Crake soroit'cho 

Finfoot wowwing' 

Great-billed  Tern .wanawanalee 

Esquimo  Curlew alaka' 

All  Sandpipers mateeweetee 

Common  Jacana parraweek' 

Sun-bittern maler 

Grey-winged  Trumpeter yacamee 

Guiana  Ibis ko'rok-ko'rok 

Scarlet  Ibis .youmaree' 

Snowy  Egret analao'    (=white) 

Little  Blue   Heron   caraow 

Guiana  Green  Heron onoray' 

Boatbilled  Heron why 'a 

Muscovy   Duck   mike-quack 

King  Vulture hangwan'na 

Yellow-headed  Vulture cooliing' 

Red-throated  Caracara kiaou'-kiaou' 

Chimachima mow-wat 

Guiana  Black  Hawk purraleek'a 

White-collared  Hawk  wooktaut'a 

Harpy  Eagle  welumi'ma 

Laughing  Falcon peeung 

Swallow-tailed  Kite kumalak' 

Spectacled  Owl wook-naa 

Scarlet  Macaw kalala'wa 

Green-winged  Macaw whya'la 

Yellow  and  Blue  Macaw tao'wa-tao'wa 

Yellow  Parrot ciiyiik'say 

Mealy  Amazon  Parrot soro'ma 

Blue-fronted  Amazon kooraywaklee' 

Yellow-headed  Amazon palawa 

Short-tailed  Parrot woero'-way 

Blue-headed  Parrot kooleek'-why 

Dusky  Parrot sallie-sallie 

Hawk-headed  Parrot anakee'ok 

Scopoli's   Parrakeet ; malang' 

Black-headed  Cacique paleeke'a 

Great  Green  Kingfisher gutoorang 

Little  Green  Kingfisher sakl'ka 

Pygmy  Rufous  Kingfisher moropleek'a 

Guiana  Motmot mutook 

Giant  Goatsucker;  Poor-me-one halawoa 

White-necked  Nighthawk ; 

Who-are-you   tocoyow 

Dusky  Nighthawk taowaroo 


140         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

White-banded  Swift cowchick 

Short-tailed  Swift  and  related 

species  camaria 

Cayenne  Hermit whyawhya 

Red-vented   Hermit marumaru 

Broadshafted  Sabrewing tapeeyiit 

Great  Jacobin laymcet 

Green  Trogon oorukooa 

Black-tailed  Trogon anakok 

Dark-headed  Cuckoo macheecutteretree' 

Greater  Chestnut  Cuckoo apeek'-wa 

Little  Chestnut  Cuckoo cheeleek'a 

Groove-billed  Ani woenoie 

Great  Ani , wooemeek 

Toco  Toucan kiiru 

Red-billed  Toucan kya'bok 

Sulphur-breasted     Toucan kriima 

Black-necked  Aracari katchsing' 

Green  Aracari palaflek 

Guiana  Toucanet kama'ta 

Paradise  Jacamar kwei'ma 

Common  Jacamar koomalawatomba 

Golden  Jacamar wanekpii 

Collared  Puff  bird salerok-werka 

Long-billed   Puffbird )  towi-towi 

Cayenne  Spotted  Puffbird  \ 

Black  Puffbird wilyot-pech5r5 

Swallow  Puffbird whydaymala 

Little  Black  Woodpecker saba'letek 

Spix's  Amazonian  Woodpecker waroko 

Red-necked  Woodpecker kipa'rak 

Lineated  Woodpecker    wakow'-a 

Cayenne  Antcreeper mateliilii 

(No  name  for  antbirds) 

Little  Wedge-billed  Woodhewer....  ilyatchekong 

Long-billed  Woodhewer tschecoit-tschecoit 

Guiana  Curve-billed  Woodhewer...  yiwok 

Lesser  Kiskadee  beekloroit 

Guiana  Kiskadee meeatobick 

White-throated  Kingbird beekleabeek 

Fork-tailed  Flycatcher cockyock 

White-bellied   Sharp-bill ache'lii 

Orange-headed  Manakin walook'ye 

White-crowned  Black  Manakin paymoke 

Crackling  Manakin _ cockkobiie 

Black-tailed  Tityra qua'klke 

' 


INDIAN  AND   COLONIAL  NAMES  141 

Goldbird pipicho 

Red    Chatterer tarana' 

Purple-breasted  Chatterer taleka 

Cayenne  Chatterer wa'na 

Cock-of-the-Rock kow-wona'ru 

Pompadour   Chatterer pakok 

Purple  Fruit-crow    „ pa'w°k 

Calf  bird  otal'wa 

Bellbird parang'tara 

Variegated  Swallow kataquack 

Grey-breasted  Martin..)  whycholo 

White-banded  Swallow] 

Guiana  House  Wren kamarachick'-koro 

Quadrille-bird rueetong 

Scarlet  Kernal-eater onnontowon-pepa 

Olive  Kernal-eater teru'peou 

Black-throated  Cardinal palesalambS 

Pectoral   Sparrow pasu'ka 

Guiana  Flower-pecker kamarangchick 

Turquoise  Honey-creeper napwe' 

Blue  Honey-creeper liiee' 

Purple   Honey-creeper paruwhy'dk 

Green   Honey-creeper „ tatock'say 

Violaceous  Euphonia rameek 

Western  Paradise  Tanager tacube 

Blue  Tanager hawalayakii 

Palm  Tanager sakwe 

Silver-beaked  Tanager paliike'a 

Fulvous-crested  Tanager kritschalaou 

Black-and-White   shining 

Tanager  waykoko 

Magpie  Tanager quale'pia 

Great  Black  Cacique  kSpa'wa 

Great  Green  Cacique keenStolee 

Yellow-backed  Cacique saylay-wa 

Red-rumped  Cacique 'tsakow 

Rice-grackle    onoi 

Glossy  Cowbird kosoleka 

Red-breasted   Blackbird carakpischuway 

Moriche  Oriole walour'a 

Black- throated  Oriole moromo'-ta 

Lavender  Jay katool'ka 

AKAWAI  NAMES  OF  MAMMALS 

Common  Large  Opossum yawa'rrie 

Murine  Opossum    salkow 


142         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

Great   Anteater walee'cheema 

Tamandua oh-youa 

Little  Anteater 

Two-toed   Sloth  _ qualang 

Three-toed  Sloth nupi 

Giant  Armadillo mow-oorl-ma 

Peba kikong 

Little  Armadillo mu  ru ! 

Tapir maipurie 

Black  Peccary pl-inka 

White-lipped  Peccary    pakeela 

Small  Brown  Deer karriouku 

Large  Red  Deer kusali 

Manatee 

Porpoise sotsotqueea 

Jaguar kikuschee 

Puma saliwarra 

Jaguarondi walwan'na 

Ocelot marakiya 

Crab  Dog. 

Crab-eating  Raccoon rooturoo 

Kinkajou    walee 

Red  Coati ewoo'noto'       . 

Black  Coati quashi 

Hacka arri-wok 

Guiana  Squirrel kale 

Mice  and  Rats moomba 

Otter mapa'lwa 

Capybara paruana 

Paca oorana 

Agouti accu 

Pygmy  Tailed  Agouti accuswhy 

Guiana  Tree  Porcupine arru 

Vampire  and  small  bats marupack' 

Fruit  Bat attoowow-wong 

Squirrel  Monkey sackawinki 

Capuchin  Monkey walka 

Beesa  Monkey  yareek'ee 

Red  Howler arau'ta 


NATIVE  GUIANA  NAMES  OF  BIRDS  AND   MAMMALS. 

Most  of  the  following  names  I  have  taken  from  my 
former  volume  on  British  Guiana,  together  with  a  few  ad- 
ditions made  on  the  present  trip.  A  list  like  this  is  often 


INDIAN  AND   COLONIAL  NAMES  143 

of  the  utmost  importance  in  learning  of  the  identity  or 
haunts  of  certain  birds  and  animals  from  the  natives  other 
than  red  Indians: 

COLONIAL  NAMES  OF  BIRDS 

Guiana  Great  Tinamou Maam 

Small  Tinamous Little  Maam 

Curassow Powis 

Guan Maroodi 

Guiana  Partridge Duraquara 

Chachalaca Hanaqua 

Hoatzin Canje  Pheasant 

Stinking  Anna 

Sea-corner  Anna 

Van   Battenburg's  Turkey 

Purple  Gallinule Coot 

Guiana  Wood  Rail Killicow 

Bush  Fowl 

Spur-winged  Jacana  Spur-wing 

Skimmer  Scissor-bill 

Sun-bittern  Sun-bird 

Trumpeter Warracabra 

Scarlet  Ibis Curri-curri 

Jabiru Negrokop 

Wood  Ibis Nigger-head 

Tiger  Bittern Tiger-bird 

Herons _ Chow 

Shypook 
Cocoi  Heron Crane 

Hanora 

Horned  Screamer Mohuca 

Grey-necked  Tree-duck Vicissi 

Snakebird Ducklar 

Darter 

Black  Vulture Carrion  Crow 

Orange-headed   Vulture Governor  Carrion  Crow 

Red-throated  Caracara Bush  Carrion  Crow 

Chimachima  Hawk Hen  Hawk 

Owls , Night  Owl 

Hawk-headed  Parrot Hya-hya  Parrot 

Spectrum  Parrakeet Kissi-kissi 

Motmot Hutu 

Houtouli 

Great  Green  Kingfisher Saxacalli 

Little  Green  Kingfisher Bottom  Ridge 

Goatsuckers  and  Nighthawks Jumby  Birds 


144         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

Hummingbirds Doctor  Birds 

Four-winged  Cuckoo Wife-sick 

Great  Ani Jumby  Bird 

Smooth-Billed  Ani Old  Witch 

Toucan Bill-bird 

Checkered  Antbird Dominique  or  Check-bird 

Cinnamon   Spinetail Rootie 

Pompadour  Cotinga Wallababa 

Bellbird Campanero 

Goldbird Greenheart-bird 

Pipi-vo 

Cinereus  Becard Woodpecker 

White-shouldered  Ground  Fly- 
catcher   Cotton-bird 

Southern    Scissor-tailed Scissor-tail 

Guiana  Kiskadee Kiskadee 

White-throated  Kingbird Madeira  or  Grey  Kiskadee 

Kiskos 
White-headed  Marsh  Flycatcher...  Parson  bird 

male,  Maharaj 

female,  Maharanee 

Cinereus  Tody-flycatcher Pipitoorie 

Yellow-breasted  Eleania 

Flycatcher   Muff-bird 

Muffin 
Guiana  House  Wren God-bird 

Guard-bird 

Necklaced  Jungle  Wren  Quadrille  Bird 

White-throated  Thrush Thrush 

Yellow  Warbler Bastard  Canary 

Thick-billed  Pygmy  Grosbeak Twa-twa 

Brown-breasted  Pygmy  GrosbeakToua-toua 

Twa-twa   Slave 

Blue-backed  Seedeater Blueback 

Pygmy  Seedeater Fire-red 

Red  Belly 

Grassbird 

Stripe-headed  Seedeater Crown-head 

Plain-headed  Seedeater Plain-head, 

Lineated  Seedeater -Ring-neck 

Pee-zing  Grassquit Pee-zing 

Zero 

Black-throated  Cardinal Wakenaam  Sparrow 

Honey-creepers Hummingbirds 

Yellow-bellied  Calliste Goldfinch 

Black-faced  Calliste Bucktown  Sackie 


INDIAN   AND    COLONIAL   NAMES 


145 


Violaceus  Euphonia 


Blue  Tanager 

Palm  Tanager 

Silver-beak  Tanager 

White-lined  Tanager 

Olive  Saltator 

Little  Boat-tailed  Grackle 

Guiana  Cowbird 

Black  Parasitic  Cacique 

Yellow-backed  Cacique 

Red-backed  Cacique 

Little  Yellow-headed  Blackbird 

Moriche  Oriole 

Yellow  Oriole 

Guiana  Meadowlark 


....Bucktown  Canary 

Yellow-belly  Canary 

Jumby  Canary 

Blue  Sackie 

Palm  Sackie 

Cocoanut  Sackie 
—  Cashew  Sackie 
....Black-sage  Sackie 
....Tom-pitcher 
....Blackbird 
....Corn-bird 

Lazy-bird 
...Rice-bird 
..Yellow  Bunyah 

Yellow-backed  Mockingbird 
...Red  Bunyah 

Red-backed    Mockingbird 
...Yellow-head 

Reedbird 

Cadoorie 

-Yellow  Plantain  Bird 
....Savannah  Starling 


COLONIAL  NAMES  OF  MAMMALS 


Red  Howling  Monkey. 

Spider  Monkey 

Ring-tailed  Monkey 

Squirrel  Monkey 

White-headed  Saki 

Red-bellied  Saki 

Beesa  Monkey 

Vampire 

Paca 

Agouti 

Pygmy  Tailed  Agouti.. 
Capybara 

Jaguar 

Black  Jaguar 


Puma 

Jaguarondi... 
Evra 


.Red   Baboon 

Baboon 
.Quata 
.Capuchin 

Sackiwinki 

.Grey  Hurua 
.White-faced  Hurua 
.Colony  Doctor 

Doctor  Blair 

.Labba 

.Accourie 

.Adourie 

.Waterhaas 

Waterhare 
.Tiger 
.Black  Tiger 

Black  Jaguar 

Maipurie  Tiger 
.Deer  Tiger 

Hacka  Tiger 
.Wild  Cat 


146         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

Ocelot Tiger  Cat 

Labba  Tiger 

Margay 
Wild  Hunting-dog Warracabra  Tiger 

Bush-dogs 
Jungle  Jackal Rough  Fox 

Crab-dog 

Crab-eating  Raccoon Crab-dog 

Black  and  Red  Coatis  Kibihee 

Quashi 

Coati 
Kinkajou Potto 

Night  Monkey 

Orison Orison 

Galictis  Hacka 

Otter Water  Dog 

Tapir Maipurie 

Bush  Cow 
Collared  Peccary Bush  Hog 

Black  Bush  Hog 

Abouyah 
White-lipped  Peccary Bush  Hog 

Kairuni 

Jungle  Deer Wellibicirie 

Savanna  Deer Deer 

Red  Deer Deer 

Manatee Water  Cow 

Sea  Cow 

Water  Mama 

Quemow 

Dolphin  Porpoise 

Three-toed  Sloth Grey  Sloth 

Ai 
Two-toed  Sloth Brown  Sloth 

TTnau 
Small  and  Medium  Armadillos Yesi 

Tayouay 

Peba Yesi 

Great  Anteater Ant-bear 

Tamanoir 

Baraim 
Common  Opossum Yawarri 

Crab-eating  Yawarri 
White-faced  Opossum Quica 


CHAPTER  X 

METHODS  OF  RESEARCH 

To  settle  down  in  a  strange  country  and  to  study  suc- 
cessfully the  wild  creatures  which  inhabit  it,  demands  a  few 
of  the  elements  of  real  warfare,  combined,  however,  with  a 
large  percentage  of  luck,  the  chances  of  a  gamble.  But  this 
last  comprises,  after  all,  much  of  the  formula  of  all  organic 
research,  the  factor  which  imbues  it  with  the  peculiar  fas- 
cination absent  from  more  mathematically  precise  phases  of 
work. 

With  steel  traps,  guns  and  cartridges,  nets  and  seines, 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  accumulating  a  host  of  dead  and 
captive  specimens,  but  this  any  professional  collector  could 
do,  and  do  better,  than  we.  We  had  to  contend  with  the 
problems  concerned  in  discovering,  watching  and  finally,  if 
necessary,  securing  dead  or  alive,  certain  definite  species  or 
groups  of  organisms.  And  this  was  a  very  different  matter, 
and  of  all  places  difficult  here  in  the  tropics,  where  a  single 
glimpse  of  a  certain  species  might  be  all  that  was  vouch- 
safed for  many  months. 

In  studying  any  one  group  we  found  it  necessary  to 
work  out  correlated  associations  with  other  phases  of  life, 
or  to  watch  meteorological  conditions.  Certain  insects 
emerged  only  immediately  after  heavy  afternoon  rains.  If 
we  wished  to  find  birds  such  as  fork-tailed  flycatchers  during 
the  molting  season,  we  carried  the  sequence  of  events  one 
link  farther.  After  heavy  rain  we  searched  for  a  flight  of 
termites  in  the  open,  and  there  we  were  certain  to  find  the 
birds.  To  depend  on  indirect  signs  became  almost  second 
nature. 

Were  we  desirous  of  learning  the  alarm  note  of  the 
white-fronted  antcatcher?  That  spry  little  bird  of  the  jun- 


148         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

gle  undergrowth  with  its  erect  halo  of  snow-white  plumes 
could  always  be  counted  on  in  the  van  of  an  army  of  driver 
ants.  But  to  locate  the  ants  themselves  in  the  jungle  was 
easy  only  after  we  had  learned  to  listen  for  the  mingled 
chirps  of  the  smaller,  more  voluble  species  of  antbirds  which 
had  adopted  this  easy  method  of  securing  a  supply  of  insect 
food. 

We  came  with  a  supply  of  small  mouse  traps  and  larger 
steel  ones,  and,  after  we  arrived,  made  box  and  figure-of-four 
traps.  But  we  had  overlooked  the  fact  that  this  was  a  world 
of  hungry  ants,  and  for  a  time  our  collector  had  poor  suc- 
cess. For  the  most  easily  trapped  mammal  would  hesitate 
at  a  delectable  bait,  when  it  was  covered  three  deep  with 
stinging  ants.  Then  elaborate  ant-proof  contrivances  were 
evolved,  guarded  by  moats  and  slightly  raised  platforms  and 
zones  of  sticky  sap.  But  this  brought  the  bait  to  the  notice 
of  stray  vultures  and  after  that  we  were  kept  busy  releasing 
the  yellow-headed  scavengers  which  came  down  from  the 
heart  of  the  sky  to  the  new-found  manna.  A  study  of  ant 
diet  revealed  certain  items  for  which  they  did  not  care,  and 
these,  chiefly  vegetable,  were  successful,  being  inedible  alike 
to  ant  and  vulture. 

Mice  and  rats  of  the  jungle  were  exceedingly  difficult 
to  capture.  Now  and  then  while  out  on  other  work  we 
caught  glimpses  of  them,  but  they  utterly  refused  to  enter 
the  most  open  trap,  set  with  the  most  enticing  bait.  And  I 
was  disappointed  in  the  showing  of  frogs  and  toads  which 
I  wanted  to  ship  north  alive.  We  could  hear  them  at  night, 
and  their  tadpoles  were  abundant  in  the  creeks  and  pools, 
but  a  long  evening's  work  with  flash  and  net  often  yielded 
a  bare  half  dozen,  all  perhaps  of  the  same  species. 

As  was  more  than  once  the  case,  my  ultimate  success  in 
these  directions  was  due  wholly  to  chance,  and  not  at  all  to 
any  careful  planning  or  invention.  I  had  a  deep  hole  dug 
at  the  southern  edge  of  Kalacoon  compound,  intending  to 


METHODS  OF  RESEARCH 


149 


Photo  by  W.  B. 
FIG.  35.    JUNGLE  PIT  NO.  5  WHICH  TRAPPED  MANY  MICE  AND  AMPHIBIANS. 

fill  it  with  refuse.  The  day  after  the  coolie  workmen  com- 
pleted their  part  I  looked  in  and,  to  my  surprise,  saw  two 
frogs  of  a  species  new  to  me,  sitting  and  blinking  at  one 
another,  while  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  bottom  of  the  pit, 
a  wild  rat  of  a  rich  rufous  color  was  vainly  trying  to  conceal 
himself  beneath  a  fallen  leaf  some  three  sizes  too  small.  I 


150         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

had  been  iminventive  enough  never  to  think  of  this  plan, 
but  at  least  I  did  not  need  a  second  hint  and  immediately 
I  set  my  Indian  boys  to  work,  at  what  was  doubtless  sheer 
insanity  to  them,  digging  a  line  of  pits  along  the  convict 
trail  which  led  southward,  and  several  more  in  the  jungle 
itself.  After  this,  one  of  us  always  made  a  morning's  round 
of  pits,  as  the  Canadian  hunter  visits  his  beaver  and  marten 
traps.  Sometimes  we  made  excellent  hauls  which  were  all 
the  more  enjoyable  because  our  booty  was  not  mangled  and 
half-dead,  but  alive  and  well. 

Huge  beetles  and  thousand  legs  blundered  into  the  pits, 
but  we  never  found  a  snake  or  lizard  in  them.  These  seemed 
to  feel  their  way  too  carefully  to  be  entrapped  in  any  such 
blatant  fashion.  Some  of  the  pits  were  in  clay,  others  in 
jdiite  sand;  some  caught  every  heavy  rain  and  had  to  be 
provided  with  life  rafts  of  small  pieces  of  bark  so  the  in- 
mates could  keep  themselves  afloat.  The  sand  pits  were 
eaten  away  from  above  by  the  rains  and  required  redigging 
every  little  while.  Altogether  it  was  an  easy  and  exciting 
method  of  obtaining  certain  of  the  lesser  ramblers  of  the 
night,  of  whom  we  otherwise  should  have  learned  nothing. 

To  the  nests  of  solitary  wasps,  which  were  one  of  our 
chief est  desires,  there  was  little  clue  except  by  direct  search. 
Many  were  found  accidentally,  and  more  by  seeing  the  wasp 
arrive  with  a  load  of  mortar  or  a  spider.  It  was  tantalizing 
to  watch  an  interesting  species  busily  at  work  on  the  damp 
clay  of  one  of  our  pits,  making  trip  after  trip  to  some  fas- 
cinating cell,  and  yet  to  be  unable  to  trace  her  more  than  a 
few  yards  as  she  sped  swiftly  through  the  maze  of  vines  and 
leaves.  The  longest  tramp  in  a  distant  part  of  the  jungle 
might  result  in  nothing,  while  on  one's  return,  if  the  key 
had  been  removed  from  the  microscope  case  on  the  table,  a 
new  species  of  wasp  would  not  impossibly  be  found  enthu- 
siastically building  in  the  lock ! 


METHODS  OF  RESEARCH  151 

Owing  to  the  dullness  of  our  senses  and  the  unwieldi- 
ness  of  our  bodies,  to  study  successfully  the  small  folk  of 
the  jungle  we  had  to  resort  to  many  artificial  means,  usually 
some  method  of  causing  them  to  assemble  at  a  desired  spot. 
We  have  seen  how  gravitation  was  used  in  the  case  of  the 
pits.  We  also  used  scent,  such  as  exposing  the  female  of 
some  insect  in  an  open  cage  and  waiting  for  males  of  the  same 
species  to  come  up  wind.  Or  we  placed  dishes  of  partly  dis- 
solved sugar  made  still  more  irresistible  by  the  addition  of 
a  little  gin,  along  the  trails  and  seldom  failed  to  find  great 
blue  morphos  and  other  butterflies  and  bees  drinking  to  re- 
pletion. A  less  pleasant  but  quite  as  effective  method  was 
to  carry  a  jar  of  carrion  to  the  jungle  and  there  unstopper 
it,  and  the  host  which  gathered  could  be  numbered  by  the 
score  of  species.  Or  the  body  of  a  red  howling  monkey  re- 
visited after  several  days,  would  furnish  such  varied  speci- 
mens as  king  and  yellow-headed  vultures,  rare  and  beautiful 
butterflies  and  giant-horned  scarabs  all  in  blue  and  copper 
mail. 

The  sense  of  sight  was  resorted  to  by  placing  the  wings 
of  a  metallic  morpho  in  the  band  of  one's  helmet,  as  a  miner 
carries  his  lighted  lamp,  when  any  of  these  wary  butterflies 
within  sight  would  usually  deflect  their  flight  and  descend 
to  within  easy  reach  of  the  net. 

A  third  sense — that  of  hearing — was  a  fertile  source  of 
profit.  The  old,  old  trick  of  squeaking  like  a  young  bird  in 
trouble  was  as  effective  in  the  tropics  as  elsewhere,  more  so 
perhaps,  for  it  never  failed  to  elicit  some  response  from  the 
smaller  pugnacious  people  of  the  jungle.  From  an  appar- 
ently deserted  part  of  the  forest  I  have  summoned  a  noisy 
flock  of  many  species,  coming  from  nest  or  food.  Even  when 
they  arrived  within  sight,  they  could  not  but  continue  to  be- 
lieve that  somewhere  there  was  a  friend  in  trouble  and  some 
of  the  smaller  ones  would  come  within  a  foot  or  two  of  my 
face.  After  a  suspicious  bird  had  given  the  alarm  and  all 


152         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

had  scattered,  a  wait  of  ten  minutes  would  restore  perfect 
confidence  in  the  deceit. 

Much  more  interesting  than  any  of  these  artificial  meth- 
ods was  to  learn  the  secrets  of  the  jungle  and  find  some  out- 
burst of  blossoms  or  wholesale  ripening  of  a  treeful  of  fruit 
or  berries,  or  the  maturing  of  a  harvest  of  nuts  on  some  for- 
est giant.  For  these  were  magnets  which  drew  creatures,  of- 
ten in  hundreds,  from  miles  in  every  direction.  A  blind  built 
in  such  a  place  was  well  worth  occupancy  for  many  hours. 
Favorite  roosting  trees  were  another  source  of  observation 
and  of  netting  the  birds,  which  lost  much  of  their  fear  of  man 
as  twilight  approached.  Finally,  and  most  delightful  of  all, 
it  was  a  joy  to  find  an  occupied  nest,  such  as  that  of  some 
little  jungle  manakin,  low  down  in  an  accessible  spot.  With 
this  as  a  localized  lure,  a  magnet  which  for  a  time  bound  two 
birds  to  a  single  spot  in  space,  one  merged  oneself  as  much 
as  might  be  into  the  surroundings  and  keenly  watched  all 
the  matters  of  home  life  which  were  vouchsafed  to  the  mere 
outsider. 

Only  when  we  encountered  such  singular  creatures  as 
the  hoatzins,  which,  to  their  peculiar  physical  and  hereditary 
interests  add  a  static  mode  of  life  and  habitat  which  is  almost 
vegetative,  do  we  appreciate  the  difficulties  of  finding  and 
keeping  under  continual  observation  other  more  active  or- 
ganisms— cursorial  or  volant. 

A  colony  of  vampires  had  long  been  in  possession  of  a 
hollow  under  the  roof  of  Kalacoon.  We  left  them  undis- 
turbed for  we  desired  to  watch  them  and  learn  something  of 
their  habits.  Their  wings  swept  our  faces  throughout  the 
night,  but  they  never  molested  us  even  when  we  ceased  to 
keep  the  vampire  lantern  alight.  We  began  our  campaign 
for  securing  young  bats  by  the  crude  method  of  waiting  with 
a  22-calibre  rifle  for  them  to  alight  on  a  favorite  spot  on  the 
lofty  rafters.  This  resulted  in  the  indiscriminate  killing  of 
several,  but  left  us  still  in  complete  ignorance  as  to  the  young. 


METHODS  OF  RESEARCH  153 

A  second  plan  was  immediately  successful  and  in  quite  a 
wholesale  way.  In  the  late  afternoon  we  suspended  a  light 
net  from  the  outside  eaves,  so  that  it  hung  downward  over  the 
entrance  to  the  "battery."  In  an  hour  vampires  began  to 
fly  out  and  become  entagled  in  the  meshes.  One  after  the 
other  we  freed  and  examined  them,  liberating  all  but  the 
very  young  ones.  The  net  was  later  removed,  the  colony 
remained  intact,  and  we  had  achieved  our  desires. 

These  and  scores  of  other  tricks  of  the  trade  were 
learned  by  constant  experience.  At  first  all  we  could  do  was 
to  walk  silently  through  the  underbrush  or  squat  motionless 
at  the  foot  of  some  great  tree  in  a  likely  looking  spot.  And 
even  after  years  of  jungle  observation  I  still  resort  to  these 
two  methods  again  and  again.  They  are  the  ones  where  pure 
luck  enters  in,  and  every  carefully  taken  step  is  a  gamble, 
every  passing  minute  of  waiting  is  filled  with  expectancy. 
Silence  and  apparently  lifeless  surroundings  may  be  the  re- 
ward, or  suddenly  there  may  be  perceived  some  new  strange 
creature  or  some  unimagined  habit.  It  was  while  taking 
shelter  from  the  rain  in  a  great  hollow  tree  on  the  present 
expedition  that  I  first  saw  a  tinamou— one  of  the  large  spe- 
cies— mounting  a  slanting  tree-trunk.  And  this  was  the  final 
proof  which  was  all  I  wanted  to  put  the  seal  of  certainty 
upon  the  careful  investigation  which  I  had  undertaken. 

NOTE— Jungle  pit  No.  5  (Fig.  35,  page  149),  was  the  scene  of  the  won- 
derful ant  battle  which  I  have  described  elsewhere  (Atlantic  Monthly,  April, 
1917,  page  514). 


Photo  by  P.  Gf.  JJ. 

FIG.  36.    CANJE  CREEK,  SHOWING  MUCKA-MUCKA  AND  BUNDURI  PIMPLER, 
HOME  OF  THE  HOATZIN. 


CHAPTER  XI 

FURTHER   NOTES   OF   THE  LIFE    HISTORY    OF    HOATZINS 

The  hoatzin  is  a  bird  of  such  unusual  interest  that  when- 
ever my  travels  take  me  near  its  haunts  I  spend  every  possible 
moment  in  observing  it.  So  thoroughly  does  it  seem  to  em- 
body the  spirit  of  past  bird  life  on  the  earth  that  I  have  an 
idee  fixe  that  if  only  I  can  watch  it  long  enough,  with  suffi- 
cient keenness  and  controlled  imagination,  some  significant 
hint  of  avian  evolution  is  certain,  sooner  or  later,  to  be  re- 
vealed. More  than  anything  of  which  I  know,  this  strange 
bird  is  to  me  an  inspiration  to  keep  hoping  and  working  for 
more  light  on  this  fascinating  phase  of  terrestrial  evolution. 

I  have  already  published  in  an  early  number  of  Zoo- 
logica  my  observations  on  the  hoatzins  of  Venezuela  and  of 
Abary  Creek,  British  Guiana. 1 

During  the  present  year  I  found  it  advisable  to  estab- 
lish our  Tropical  Research  Station  in  the  interior  of  the 
country,  far  from  the  haunts  of  the  hoatzins.  In  spite  of 
my  utmost  efforts  I  could  get  nothing  but  conflicting  state- 
ments as  to  the  nesting  season.  At  last  I  decided  to  visit 
Berbice  in  the  hope  of  accomplishing  three  distinct  things; 
to  photograph  young  hoatzins  in  the  acts  of  climbing,  walk- 
ing and  swimming,  to  obtain  material  for  a  group  of  these 
birds  for  the  American  Museum  and  to  attempt  to  bring 
living  specimens  north  to  the  New  York  Zoological  Park. 

On  May  25,  with  Hartley  and  Howes,  my  two  assist- 
ants, I  took  train  at  Georgetown  and  in  four  hours  traversed 
the  coastal  front  of  British  Guiana,  ending  our  journey  at 
New  Amsterdam  on  the  Berbice  River.  Here,  with  head- 
quarters at  the  Government  Colony  House  we  remained  for 
three  days,  making  trips  to  various  sugar  plantations  and  up 

1  7Moloyica,  I,  No.  2,  1909,  "Ecology  of  the  Hoatzin,"  pp.  45-66. 


156         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

Canje  Creek  and  the  Berbice.  Then  sending  my  compan- 
ions back  to  Kalacoon  I  remained  a  day  longer  to  attend  to 
the  packing  of  the  group  material  and  to  complete  the  pho- 
tography of  the  young  birds.  Thanks  to  the  intelligent  sym- 
pathy and  great  assistance  of  Edgar  Beckett  we  were  quickly 
oriented  and  able  to  make  use  of  every  moment  of  our  time. 
In  this  brief  visit  I  successfully  achieved  the  first  two  objects 
which  I  had  in  mind.  The  third  I  was  compelled  to  post- 
pone until  another  year. 

In  addition  to  the  observations  I  recorded  seven  and 
eight  years  ago,  I  succeeded  during  this  last  visit  in  noting 
certain  new  habits  which  help  to  round  out  the  life  history 
of  these  strange  birds. 

These  I  have  assembled  in  the  following  section,  reserv- 
ing for  a  third  the  more  general  notes  which  I  have  chosen 
to  present  in  much  the  same  form  as  I  wrote  them  in  my 
journal  in  the  field.  The  desultory  character  of  the  notes 
is  due  to  the  shortness  of  the  time  I  was  able  to  spend  with 
the  birds.  Most  of  the  observations  are  new  and  add  to  our 
general  knowledge  of  these  strange  creatures,  and  to  the 
material,  which  at  some  future  time  I  shall  assemble  in  mono- 
graphic form. 

The  flight  of  the  hoatzin  resembles  that  of  an  overfed 
hen ;  its  voice  is  no  more  melodious  than  the  cry  of  a  peacock, 
and  less  sonorous  than  an  alligator's  roar.  Its  grace  is  ba- 
trachian  rather  than  avian,  while  the  odor  of  its  body  re- 
sembles that  of  no  bird  untouched  by  dissolution.  Still  the 
hoatzin  remains  the  most  remarkable  and  interesting  bird 
living  on  the  earth  today. 

It  has  successfully  defied  time  and  space.  For  it,  the 
dial  of  the  ages  has  moved  more  slowly  than  for  the  rest  of 
organic  life,  and  although  living  and  breathing  with  us  to- 
day, yet  its  world  is  an  affair  of  two  dimensions — a  line  of 
thorny  saplings  threaded  along  the  muddy  banks  of  a  few 
tropical  waters. 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS 


157 


Photo  ly  W.  B. 

FIG.  37.    MUCKA-MUCKA,  CHARACTERISTIC  GROWTH  OF  THE 
HOATZINS'  HAUNTS. 

A  bird  in  a  cage  cannot  escape  and  may  be  found  month 
after  month  wherever  the  cage  is  placed;  a  stuffed  bird  in 
a  case  may  resist  dissolution  for  a  century.  But  when  we 
go  to  look  for  the  bluebirds  which  nest  in  the  orchard  they 
may  have  flown  a  half-mile  away  in  their  search  for  food; 
the  plover  which  scurries  before  us  today  on  the  beach  may 
tonight  be  far  away  on  the  first  lap  of  his  seven-thousand- 
mile  flight  to  the  southward.  The  hoatzin's  status  lies  ra- 
ther with  the  caged  bird.  In  November,  in  New  York  City, 
an  Englishman  from  British'  Guiana  said  to  me,  "Go  to  the 
Berbice  River,  and  at  the  north  end  of  the  town  of  New 
Amsterdam  in  front  of  Mr.  Beckett's  house  you  will  find 
hoatzins."  Six  months  later,  as  I  drove  along  a  tropical  river 
road  I  saw  three  hoatzins  perched  on  a  low  thorn  bush  at  the 


158         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

river's  edge  in  front  of  a  house.  And  the  river  was  the  Ber- 
bice,  and  the  house  that  of  Mr.  Beckett. 

Thus  are  the  hoatzins  independent  of  space  as  all  other 
flying  birds  know  it,  and  in  their  classic  reptilian  affinities, 
voice,  actions,  arms,  fingers,  habits,  they  bring  close  the  dim 
epochs  of  past  time  and  renew  for  our  inspection,  the  youth 
of  bird  life  on  the  earth.  It  is  discouraging  even  to  attempt 
to  translate  facts  of  such  tremendous  import,  habits  fraught 
with  so  profound  a  significance  into  words,  or  to  make  them 
realistic  even  with  the  aid  of  photographs. 

We  took  a  boat  opposite  Beckett's  house  and  paddled 
slowly  with  the  nearly  flood  tide  up  the  Berbice  River.  It 
was  two  o'clock,  the  hottest  time  of  the  day.  For  three  miles 
we  drifted  past  the  chosen  haunts  of  the  hoatzins.  All  were 
perched  in  the  shade,  quiet  in  the  violent  heat,  squatting  pros- 
trate or  sleepily  preening  their  plumage.  Now  and  then  we 
saw  a  bird  on  her  nest  always  over  the  water.  If  she  were 
sitting  on  eggs  she  sat  close ;  if  young  birds  were  in  the  nest 
she  half  crouched,  or  perched  on  the  rim,  so  that  her  body 
cast  a  shadow  over  the  young. 

The  vegetation  was  not  varied.  Mucka-mucka  was  here 
and  there  in  the  foreground,  with  an  almost  solid  line  of  bun- 
duri  pimpler  or  thorn  tree  (Drepanocarpus  lunatus).  This 
was  the  real  home  of  the  birds,  and  this  plant  forms  the  back- 
ground whenever  the  hoatzin  comes  to  mind.  This  growth 
loves  the  water  and  crowds  down  so  that  the  rising  of  the 
tide,  whether  salt  or  brackish,  covers  the  mud  in  which  it 
grows,  so  that  it  appears  as  aquatic  as  the  mangrove  which, 
here  and  there,  creeps  out  alongside  it.  The  pimpler  bears 
thorns  of  the  first  magnitude,  often  double,  recurved  and  at 
such  diabolically  unexpected  places,  that  like  barbed  wire, 
it  is  impossible  to  grasp  anywhere  without  drawing  blood. 
Such  a  chevaux-de-frise  would  defend  a  trench  against  the 
most  courageous  regiment.  The  stems  were  light  grey, 
greening  toward  the  younger  shoots,  and  the  foliage  was 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS  159 

pleasantly  divided  into  double  lines  of  locust-like  leaflets. 
The  plants  were  in  full  flower,  dainty,  upright  panicles  of 
wisteria-like  pea  blossoms,  pale  violet  and  white  with  tiny 
buds  of  magenta.  A  faint,  subdued  perfume  drifted  from 
them  through  the  tangle  of  branches.  The  fruit  was  ripen- 
ing on  many  plants,  clusters  of  green,  semi-circular,  flat, 
kidney  pods.  The  low  branches  stretched  gracefully  water- 
wards  in  long  sweeping  curves,  and  on  these  at  a  fork  or  at 
the  crossing  of  two  distinct  branches,  the  hoatzins  placed 
their  nests,  and  with  the  soft-tissued  leaflets  they  packed  their 
capacious  crops  and  fed  their  young. 

Besides  these  two  plants,  which  alone  may  be  considered 
as  forming  the  principal  environment,  two  blooms  were 
conspicuous  at  this  season;  a  deep  calyxed,  round  blossom 
of  rich  yellow — an  hibiscus,  which  the  Indians  called  makoe, 
and  from  the  bark  of  which  they  made  most  excellent  rope. 
The  other  flower  was  a  vine  which  crept  commonly  up  over 
the  pimpler  trees,  regardless  of  water  and  thorns,  and  hung 
out  twin  blossoms  in  profusion,  pink  or  pinkish-white,  trum- 
pet shaped  with  flaring  lips — an  Echites  of  sorts. 

The  mid-day  life  about  this  haunt  of  hoatzins  was  full 
of  interest.  Tody-flycatchers  of  two  species,  yellow-breasted 
and  streaked  were  the  commonest  birds,  and  their  little 
homes,  like  bits  of  tide-hung  drift,  swayed  from  the  tips  of 
the  pimpler  branches.  They  dashed  to  and  fro,  regardless  of 
the  heat,  and  whenever  we  stopped,  came  within  a  foot  or 
two,  curiously  watching  our  every  motion.  Kiskadees  hopped 
along  the  water's  edge  in  the  shade,  snatching  insects  and 
occasionally  splashing  into  the  water  after  small  fish.  Awk- 
ward Guiana  green  herons,  not  long  out  of  the  nest,  crept 
like  shadow  silhouettes  of  birds  close  to  the  dark  water.  High 
overhead,  like  flecks  of  jet  against  the  blue  sky,  the  vultures 
soared. 

Green  dragonflies  whirled  here  and  there,  and  great 
blue-black  bees  fumbled  in  and  out  of  the  hibiscus,  yellowed 


160         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

with  pollen  and  too  busy  to  stop  a  second  in  their  day-long- 
labor.  This  little  area  held  very  strange  creatures,  some  of 
which  we  saw  even  in  our  few  hours'  search.  Four-eyed  fish 
skittered  over  the  water,  pale  as  the  ghosts  of  fish,  and  when 
quiet,  showing  only  as  a  pair  of  bubbly  eyes.  Still  more 
weird  hairy  caterpillars  wriggled  their  way  through  the  mud- 
dy, brackish  current — aquatic  larvae  of  a  small  moth  which 
I  had  not  seen  since  I  found  them  in  the  trenches  at  Para. 
The  only  sound  at  this  time  of  day  was  a  drowsy,  but  pene- 
trating tr-r-r-r-r-p!  made  by  a  green-bodied,  green-legged 
grasshopper  of  good  size  whose  joy  in  life  seemed  to  be  to 
lie  lengthwise  upon  a  pimpler  branch,  and  skriek  violently 
at  frequent  intervals,  giving  his  wings  a  frantic  flutter  at 
each  utterance,  and  slowly  encircling  the  stem. 

In  such  environment  the  hoatzin  lives  and  thrives,  and 
thanks  to  the  strong  body  odor  has  existed  from  time 
immemorial  in  the  face  of  terrific  handicaps.  The  odor  is 
a  strong  musky  one,  not  particularly  disagreeable.  I 
searched  my  memory  at  every  whiff  for  something  of  which 
it  vividly  reminded  me,  and  at  last  the  recollection  came  to 
me — the  smell,  delectable  and  fearfully  exciting  in  former 
years — of  elephants  at  a  circus,  and  not  altogether  elephants 
either — but  a  compound  of  one-sixth  sawdust,  another  part 
peanuts,  another  of  strange  animals  and  three-sixths  sway- 
ing elephants.  That  to  my  mind,  exactly  describes  the  odor 
of  hoatzin  as  I  sensed  it  among  these  alien  surroundings! 

As  I  have  mentioned,  the  nest  of  the  hoatzin  was  in- 
variably built  over  the  water,  and  we  shall  later  discover  the 
reason  for  this.  The  nests  were  sometimes  only  four  feet 
above  high  water,  or  equally  rarely,  at  a  height  of  forty  to 
fifty  feet.  Six  to  fifteen  feet  included  the  zone  of  four-fifths 
of  the  nests  of  these  birds.  They  varied  much  in  solidity, 
some  being  frail  and  loosely  put  together,  the  dry  dead 
sticks  which  composed  them,  dropping  apart  almost  at  a 
touch.  Usually  they  were  as  well  knitted  as  a  heron's,  and 
in  about  half  the  cases  consisted  of  a  recent  nest  built  upon 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS 


161 


Photo  by  R.  G.  H. 


BUNDURI  PIMPLER  TANGLE,  SHOWING  THREE  NESTS  AND 
SIX  HOATZINS. 


the  foundations  of  an  old  one.  There  was  hardly  any  cavity 
at  the  top  and  the  coarse  network  of  sticks  looked  like  a  pre- 
carious resting  place  for  eggs  and  an  exceedingly  uncom- 
fortable one  for  young  birds. 


162         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  by  W. 
FIG.  39.    NEST  OF  THE  HOATZIN  BUILT  ON  A  MANGROVE  OVER  THE  WATER. 

When  we  approached  a  nest  the  occupant  paid  no  at- 
tention until  we  actually  came  close  to  a  branch  or  shook  it. 
She  then  rose,  protesting  hoarsely,  and  lifting  wings  and  tail 
as  she  croaked.  At  the  last  moment,  often  when  only  a  yard 
away,  she  flew  off  and  away  to  a  distance  of  fifty  feet  or 
more.  Watching  closely,  when  she  realized  that  we  really 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS  163 

had  intentions  on  her  nest  she  returned  and  perched  fifteen 
or  twenty  feet  away,  croaking  continually,  her  mate  a  few 
feet  farther  off,  and  all  the  hoatzins  within  sight  or  hearing 
joining  in  sympathetic  disharmony,  all  with  synchronous 
lifting  of  tail  and  wings  at  each  utterance.  The  voice  of 
the  female  was  appreciably  deeper  than  that  of  the  male, 
having  more  of  a  gurgling  character,  like  one  of  the  notes  of 
a  curassow.  The  usual  note  of  both  sexes  is  an  unwritable, 
hoarse,  creaking  sound,  quite  cicada  or  frog-like.  Their 
tameness  was  astounding,  and  they  would  often  sit  un- 
moved, while  we  were  walking  noisily  about  or  focussing  the 
camera  within  two  yards.  If  several  were  sitting  on  a 
branch  and  one  was  shot,  the  others  would  often  show  no 
symptoms  of  concern  or  alarm,  either  at  the  noise  of  the  gun 
or  the  fall  of  their  companion.  A  bird  which  may  have  been 
crouched  close  to  the  slain  bird  would  continue  to  preen  its 
plumage  without  a  glance  downward.  When  the  young  have 
attained  their  first  full  plumage  it  was  almost  impossible  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  older  members  of  the  flock  except 
by  their  generally  smaller  size. 

But  the  heart  of  our  interest  in  the  hoatzins  centered  in 
the  nestlings.  Some  kind  Providence  directed  the  time  of 
our  visit,  which  I  choose  against  the  advice  of  some  of  the 
very  earliest  inhabitants  of  New  Amsterdam.  It  turned  out 
that  we  were  on  the  scene  exactly  at  the  right  time.  A  week 
either  way  would  have  yielded  much  poorer  results.  The 
nestlings  in  seven  occupied  nests,  observed  as  we  drifted 
along  shore,  or  landed  and  climbed  among  the  thorns,  were 
in  an  almost  identical  stage  of  development.  In  fact  the 
greatest  difference  in  size  occurred  between  two  nestlings 
of  the  same  brood.  Their  down  was  a  thin,  scanty,  fuzzy 
covering,  and  the  flight  feathers  were  less  than  a  half  inch 
in  length.  No  age  would  have  showed  to  better  advantage 
every  movement  of  wings  or  head. 

When  a  mother  hoatzin  took  reluctant  flight  from  her 
nest,  the  young  bird  at  once  stood  upright  and  looked  curi- 


164         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

ously  in  every  direction.  No  slacker  he,  crouching  flat  or 
awaiting  his  mother's  directing  cries.  From  the  moment  he 
was  left  alone  he  began  to  depend  upon  the  warnings  and 
signs  which  his  great  beady  eyes  and  skinny  ears  conveyed  to 
him.  Hawks  and  vultures  had  swept  low  over  his  nest  and 
mother  unheeded.  Coolies  in  their  boats  had  paddled  under- 
neath with  no  more  than  a  glance  upward.  Throughout  his 
Week  of  life,  as  though  his  parents'  and  their  parents'  par- 
ents' lives,  no  danger  had  disturbed  their  peaceful  existence. 
Only  for  a  sudden  wind  storm  such  as  the  week  before  had 
upset  nests  and  blown  out  eggs,  it  might  be  said  that  for  the 
little  hoatzin  chicks  life  held  nothing  but  siestas  and  munch- 
ings  of  pimpler  leaves. 

But  one  little  hoatzin,  if  he  had  any  thoughts  such  as 
these,  failed  to  count  on  the  invariable  exception  to  every 
rule,  for  this  day  the  totally  unexpected  happened,  and  fate, 
in  the  shape  of  enthusiastic  scientists,  descended  upon  him. 
He  was  not  for  a  second  disconcerted.  If  we  had  concen- 
trated upon  him  a  thousand  strong,  by  boats  and  by  land,  he 
would  have  fought  the  good  fight  for  freedom  and  life  as 
calmly  as  he  waged  it  against  us.  And  we  found  him  no 
mean  antagonist,  and  far  from  reptilian  in  his  ability  to  meet 
new  and  unforeseen  conditions. 

His  mother,  who  a  moment  before  had  been  packing 
his  capacious  little  crop  with  predigested  pimpler  leaves,  had 
now  flown  off  to  an  adjoining  group  of  mangroves,  where 
she  and  his  father  croaked  hoarse  encouragement.  His 
flight  feathers  hardly  reached  beyond  his  finger  tips  and  his 
body  was  covered  with  a  sparse  coating  of  sooty  black  down. 
So  there  could  be  no  resort  to  flight.  He  must  defend  him- 
self, bound  to  earth  like  his  assailants. 

Hardly  had  his  mother  left  when  his  comical  head,  with 
thick,  blunt  beak  and  large  intelligent  eyes  appeared  over 
the  rim  of  the  nest.  His  alert  expression  was  increased  by 
the  suspicion  of  a  crest  on  his  crown,  where  the  down  was 
slightly  longer.  Higher  and  higher  rose  his  head,  supported 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS 


165 


Photo  by  P.  O.  H. 
FIG.  40.    HOATZIN  ON  NEST  CONTAINING  TWO  NESTLINGS. 

on  a  neck  of  extraordinary  length  and  thinness.  No  more 
than  this  was  needed  to  mark  his  absurd  resemblance  to  some 
strange,  extinct  reptile.  A  young  dinosaur  must  have  looked 
much  like  this,  while  for  all  that  my  glance  revealed,  I  might 
have  been  looking  at  a  diminutive  Galapagos  tortoise.  In- 
deed this  simile  came  to  mind  often  when  I  became  more 
intimate  with  nestling  hoatzins.  Sam,  my  black  tree  climber, 
kicked  off  his  shoes  and  began  creeping  along  the  horizontal 
limbs  of  the  pimplers.  At  each  step  he  felt  carefully  with 
each  calloused  sole  in  order  to  avoid  the  longer  of  the  cruel 
thorns,  and  punctuated  every  yard  with  some  gasp  of  pain 
or  muttered  personal  prayer,  "Pleas'  doan'  stick  me, 
Thorns!"  At  last  his  hand  touched  the  branch,  and  it  shook 
slightly.  The  young  bird  stretched  his  mittened  hands  high 
above  his  head  and  waved  them  a  moment.  With  similar 


166         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

intent  a  boxer  or  wrestler  flexes  his  muscles  and  bends  his 
body.  One  or  two  uncertain,  forward  steps  brought  the  bird 
to  the  edge  of  the  nest  and  at  the  base  of  a  small  branch. 
There  he  stood  and  raising  one  wing  leaned  heavily  against 
the  stem,  bracing  himself.  My  man  climbed  higher  and 
the  nest  swayed  violently.  Now  the  brave  little  hoatzin 
reached  up  to  some  tiny  side  twigs  and  aided  by  the  proj  ect- 
ing  ends  of  dead  sticks  from  the  nest,  he  climbed  with  facility, 
his  thumbs  and  fore  fingers  apparently  being  of  more  aid 
than  his  feet.  It  was  fascinating  to  see  him  ascend,  stopping 
now  and  then  to  crane  his  head  and  neck  far  out,  turtle-wise. 
He  met  every  difficulty  with  some  new  contortion  of  body 
or  limbs,  often  with  so  quick  or  so  subtle  a  shifting  as  to 
escape  my  scrutiny.  Once  he  even  chinned  himself.  The 
branch  ended  in  a  tiny  crotch  and  here  perforce,  ended  his 
attempt  at  escape  by  climbing.  He  stood  on  the  swaying 
twig,  one  wing  clutched  tight  and  braced  with  both  feet. 
Nearer  and  nearer  crept  Sam.  Not  a  quiver  on  the  part  of 
the  little  hoatzin.  We  did  not  know  it,  but  inside  that  ridi- 
culous head  there  was  definite  decision  as  to  a  deadline.  He 
watched  the  approach  of  this  great  strange  creature,  this  dan- 
ger, this  thing  so  wholly  new  and  foreign  to  his  experience 
and  doubtless  to  all  the  generations  of  his  forebears.  A  black 
hand  grasped  the  thorny  branch  six  feet  from  his  perch,  and 
like  a  flash  he  played  his  next  trick — the  only  remaining  one 
he  knew — one  that  set  him  as  apart  from  all  modern  land 
birds  as  is  the  frog  from  the  swallow. 

The  young  hoatzin  stood  erect  for  an  instant,  and  then 
both  wings  of  the  little  bird  were  stretched  straight  back,  not 
folded,  bird-wise,  but  dangling  loosely  and  reaching  well 
beyond  the  body.  For  a  considerable  fraction  of  time  he 
leaned  forward.  Then  without  effort,  without  apparent  leap 
or  jump  he  dived  straight  downward,  as  beautifully  as  a  seal, 
direct  as  a  plummet  and  very  swiftly.  There  was  a  scarcely 
noticeable  splash  and  as  I  gazed  with  real  awe,  I  watched 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS    - 


167 


Photo  &j/  P.  G.  H. 

FIG.  41.    NESTLING  HOATZINS  PROGRESSING  ON  ALL  FOURS  AND  PREPARING 
TO  CLIMB  OR  TO  DIVE    FROM  THE  NEST. 

the  widening  ripples  which  undulated  over  the  muddy  water 
— the  only  trace  of  the  whereabouts  of  the  young  bird. 

It  seemed  as  if  no  one,  whether  ornithologist,  evolution- 
ist, poet  or  philosopher  could  have  failed  to  be  profoundly 
impressed  at  the  sight  we  had  seen.  Here  I  was  in  a  very 
real,  a  very  modern  boat,  with  the  honk  of  motor  horns 
sounding  from  the  river  road  a  few  yards  away  through  the 
bushes,  in  the  shade  of  this  tropical  vegetation  in  the  year 
nineteen  hundred  and  sixteen,  and  yet  the  curtain  of  the 
past  had  been  lifted,  and  I  had  been  permitted  a  glimpse  of 
what  must  have  been  common  in  the  millions  of  years  ago. 
It  was  a  tremendous  thing,  a  wonderful  thing  to  have  seen 
and  it  seemed  to  dwarf  all  the  strange  sights  I  had  seen  in 
all  other  parts  of  the  earth's  wilderness.  I  had  read  of  these 


FIG.  42.    YOUNG  HOATZINS  CLIMBING  BY  MEANS  OF  NECK.  FINGERS  AND  TOES 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS  169 

habits  and  had  expected  them,  but  like  one's  first  sight  of  a 
volcano  in  eruption,  no  reading  or  description  prepares  one 
for  the  actual  phenomenon. 

I  sat  silently  watching  for  the  reappearance  of  the 
young  bird.  We  tallied  five  pairs  of  eyes  and  yet  many  min- 
utes passed  before  I  saw  the  same  little  head  and  emaciated 
neck  sticking  out  of  the  water  alongside  a  bit  of  drift  rubbish. 
The  only  other  visible  thing  was  the  protruding  spikes  of 
the  bedraggled  tail  feathers.  I  worked  the  boat  in  toward 
the  bird,  half-heartedly,  for  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that 
this  brave  little  bit  of  atavism  deserved  his  freedom,  so  splen- 
didly had  he  fought  for  it  among  the  pimplers.  Soon  he 
ducked  forward,  dived  out  of  sight  and  came  up  twenty  feet 
away  among  an  inextricable  tangle  of  vines.  I  sent  a  little 
cheer  of  well  wishing  after  him  and  we  salvaged  Sam. 

Then  we  shoved  out  the  boat  and  watched  from  a  dis- 
tance. Five  or  six  minutes  passed  and  a  skinny,  crooked, 
two-fingered  mitten  of  an  arm  reared  upward  out  of  the 
muddy  flood  and  the  nestling,  black  and  glistening,  hauled 
itself  out  of  water.  Thus  must  the  first  amphibian  have 
climbed  out,  shaken  the  water  from  its  eyes  and  gasped  in 
the  thin  air.  But  the  young  hoatzin  neither  gasped  nor  shiv- 
ered, and  seemed  as  self-possessed  as  if  this  were  a  common 
occurrence  in  its  life.  There  was  not  the  slightest  doubt, 
however,  that  this  was  its  first  introduction  to  water.  Yet 
it  had  dived  from  a  height  of  fifteen  feet,  about  fifty  times 
its  own  length,  as  cleanly  as  a  seal  leaps  from  a  berg.  It  was 
as  if  a  child  should  dive  two  hundred  feet ! 

In  fifteen  minutes  more  it  had  climbed  high  above  the 
water  and  with  unerring  accuracy  directly  toward  its  natal 
bundle  of  sticks  overhead.  The  mother  now  came  close  and 
with  hoarse  rasping  notes  and  frantic  heaves  of  tail  and  wings 
lent  encouragement.  Just  before  we  paddled  from  sight, 
when  the  little  fellow  had  reached  his  last  rung,  he  partly 
opened  his  beak  and  gave  a  little  falsetto  cry — a  clear,  high 
tone,  tailing  off  to  a  gutter al  rasp.  His  splendid  courage 


170         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

had  broken  at  last;  he  had  nearly  reached  the  nest  and  he 
was  aching  to  put  aside  all  this  terrible  responsibility,  this 
pitting  of  his  tiny  might  against  such  fearful  odds.  He 
wanted  to  be  a  helpless  nestling  again,  to  crouch  on  the 
springy  bed  of  twigs  with  a  feather  coverlet  over  him  and 
be  stuffed  at  will  with  delectable  pimpler  pap.  Such  is  the 
normal  right  destiny  of  a  hoatzin  chick  and  the  wheee-og! 
wrung  from  him  by  the  reaction  of  safety,  seemed  to  voice 
all  this. 

I  have  more  than  once  emphasized  the  extremely  seden- 
tary character  of  the  hoatzin,  which  is  not  surprising  when 
we  correlate  the  factors  of  weak  flight  and  exceedingly  lim- 
ited aboreal  environment.  Twice  I  have  seen  interesting 
episodes  which  were  significant  from  this  very  viewpoint. 
In  the  Berbice  River  and  still  more  in  its  tributary,  the 
Canje  Creek,  floating  islands  are  not  uncommon.  Indeed, 
some  distance  up  where  the  creek  is  quite  narrow,  these  wan- 
dering bits  of  vegetation  occasionally  extend  from  bank  to 
bank.  At  such  places  the  river  disappears  wholly  from  view 
and  one  sees  only  two  parallel  rows  of  bushes  and  trees  with 
a  green,  level  lawn  spread  between.  These  floating  masses 
are  constantly  breaking  up  and  drifting  out  to  sea.  Usually 
they  are  composed  of  three  distinct  plants,  a  sort  of  floating 
Polygonum,  a  Panicum  locally  known  as  Missouri  grass  and 
a  Pontederia.  The  latter  is  the  most  attractive  as  it  bears 
pale  flowers  like  little  hyacinths.  Occasionally  boughs  or 
full-sized  trees  are  seen  passing  down  stream  with  the 
current. 

Twice  I  have  seen  hoatzins,  a  single  bird  in  one  instance 
and  two  at  another  time,  perched  in  branches  which,  low  in 
the  grassy  mass,  were  floating  steadily  down  and  revolving 
as  they  went.  In  the  case  of  the  two  birds  I  was  in  a  par- 
ticularly favorable  place  for  observation  and  could  command 
at  least  a  half  mile  of  creek,  and  from  the  time  they  appeared 
until  the  great  mat  swept  around  the  farthest  curve,  the 
birds  did  not  move.  If  they  did  not  fly  ashore  before  they 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS  171 

reached  the  Canje  bridge,  a  few  miles  below,  they  must  have 
been  carried  out  to  sea. 

We  must  assume  either  that  this  was  a  voluntary  migra- 
tion, which  would  be  retraversed  by  many  a  slow,  painful, 
flapping  flight,  or  that  the  birds  were  young,  newly  mated 
and  actually  shifting  their  haunts  from  far  up  stream  to 
nearer  the  mouth.  The  latter  view  is  much  the  more  prob- 
able and  would  go  far  toward  clearing  up  the  problem  of  the 
distribution  of  these  birds.  Schomburgk,  in  the  second  vol- 
ume of  his  Reisen  in  Britisch  Guiana,  writes  that  "Die  west- 
liche  Kette  des  Canuku-Gebige  endet  sich  in  den  2,000  Fuss 
hohen  Curatawuiburi,"  and  near  here  he  found  an  isolated 
colony  of  hoatzins.  Wilgress  Anderson  reports  another  on 
the  Takutu  River,  a  northern  tributary  of  the  Amazon,  be- 
tween British  Guiana  and  Brazil,  while  H.  C.  P.  Melville, 
Magistrate  of  the  Rupununni  District,  writes  that  while 
hoatzins  are  plentiful  on  the  Takutu,  they  are  not  found  on 
the  Rupununni,  although  conditions  on  both  rivers  are  very 
similar.  In  the  lower  reaches  of  the  Abary  River,  twenty- 
five  miles  northwest  of  the  Berbice,  hoatzins  are  abundant, 
and  elsewhere  in  Venezuela,  Brazil  and  other  portions  of  the 
birds'  range  I  have  observed  this  peculiar  nodal  occurrence. 
The  most  reasonable  explanation  would  seem  to  be  a  migra- 
tion of  one  or  more  pairs  in  some  such  way  as  I  have  de- 
scribed, which  would  readily  account  for  the  hiatus  of  inter- 
vening territory,  devoid  of  hoatzins  while  environmentally 
it  may  be  perfectly  suited  to  their  needs. 

Judging  by  the  reports  of  other  observers  and  from  the 
opinion  of  Edgar  Beckett  who  has  lived  for  many  years  in 
New  Amsterdam,  the  hoatzins  are  holding  their  own  and  are 
not  decreasing  either  on  the  Berbice  River  or  along  the  banks 
of  Canje  Creek.  The  birds  are  on  the  First  Protected  List 
which  means  that  they  are  not  allowed  to  be  shot  at  any  time, 
and  in  addition  there  is  a  special  fine  of  five  pounds  sterling 
for  killing  one  of  them. 


172         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

The  nesting  season  of  .hoatzins  has  been  variously  stated 
to  be  in  January,  April,  July  and  October.  I  found  evi- 
dence that  the  birds  of  this  region,  like  many  other  tropical 
species,  have  two  periods  of  breeding.  In  every  small  flock 
of  hoatzins  I  observed  immature  individuals  in  adult  plum- 
age, but  of  considerably  smaller  size,  which  I  estimated  to 
be  about  six  or  seven  months  old.  In  late  May,  I  found 
a  few  nests  with  eggs,  but  the  great  majority  contained 
young  of  about  two  weeks  of  age.  These  facts  would  indi- 
cate that  the  beginning  of  the  two  breeding  seasons  was  in 
November  and  April.  While  the  birds  may,  as  individuals, 
nest  off  and  on  throughout  the  period  from  November  to 
May,  yet  from  what  I  saw  of  the  two  very  distinct  stages 
of  nestlings  and  three-quarter  grown  birds,  the  two  annual 
breeding  seasons  are  quite  clearly  defined. 

As  to  the  relative  number  of  eggs  and  young,  seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  nests  contain  two  eggs,  while  three  eggs 
are  found  in  about  one-quarter  of  the  nests.  When  the  young 
birds  have  reached  the  age  of  two  weeks,  the  relative  num- 
bers already  show  the  effect  of  some  inimical  factor  in  the 
environment.  One-half  of  the  nests  now  contain  only  one 
young  bird ;  forty  per  cent  hold  two  young,  while  those  with 
three  young  amount  only  to  ten  per  cent  of  the  whole.  In 
fact,  I  found  only  two  broods  of  three  young,  and  it  was 
interesting  to  observe  that  in  both  cases  three  nests  were 
superimposed  one  upon  the  other,  as  if  the  same  pair  of  birds 
had  been  unusually  successful  in  establishing  their  home  year 
after  year  in  the  same  place.  And  the  full  complement  of 
young  bore  testimony  to  the  fact  of  their  parents'  ability  to 
meet  the  difficulties  and  cope  with  the  dangers  of  the  breed- 
ing season. 

As  I  have  stated  elsewhere,  the  nests  are  invariably 
built  over  the  water,  but  two  which  I  found  were  so  placed, 
that  at  low  tide  the  mud  of  the  river's  edge  was  exposed 
directly  beneath.  This  was  decidedly  an  error  of  judgment 
on  the  part  of  the  parent  birds.  Whenever  a  nest  was  threat- 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS 


173 


Photo  by  W.  B. 


FIG.  43.     NEST  AND  TWO  EGGS  OF  THE  HOATZIN. 


ened  and  the  nestling  hoatzin  found  its  retreat  to  the  upper 
branches  cut  off,  without  hesitation  it  dived  into  the  water 
below.  But  when  I  alarmed  the  young  birds  of  these  two 
nests,  the  youngsters  all  but  dislocated  their  necks  by  diving 
headlong  into  the  soft  mud.  One  fairly  stuck,  legs  in  air, 
head  down  in  a  crab's  hole  for  a  few  seconds.  They  then 
wriggled  free  and  in  frantic  haste  scrambled  and  slithered 
on  all  fours  and  belly  to  the  edge  of  the  water.  The  pitiful, 
whole-hearted  trust,  instinctive  though  it  was,  which  they 
placed  in  their  parents'  judgment  was  most  interesting. 

These  birds  of  two  weeks  were  in  excellent  condition 
for  showing  to  the  best  advantage  their  famous  ability  of 
quadrumanual  climbing  and  skillful  diving  and  swimming. 

One  point  interested  me  keenly.  When  the  wings  of 
the  nestling  were  closed,  the  claws  of  the  thumb  and  fore- 


174         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

finger  pointed  down  and  inward,  hang  closely  apposed  to 
the  wing,  and  well  out  of  harm's  way.  They  were  sheathed, 
as  it  were,  between  wing  and  body.  The  movement  of  exten- 
sion caused  the  claws  to  be  released  and  at  the  same  time  to 
revolve  in  a  full  quarter  of  a  circle,  pointing  thus  directly  for- 
ward and  inward.  This  becomes  of  dominant  significance 
when  we  recall  the  position  of  the  claws  in  the  fossil  speci- 
mens of  Archaeopteryx.  Recently,  when  reviewing  the  char- 
acters of  this  wonderful  creature  with  a  view  to  restoration, 
I  was  in  great  doubt  about  accounting  for  the  position  of  the 
claws  in  the  partly  spread  wing.  It  seemed  almost  as  if  the 
forward,  inward  pointing  claws  had  been  accidently  crushed 
into  that  position  by  pressure  after  the  bird's  death,  or  by 
some  flexure  of  the  muscles  and  tendons  after  decomposition. 
But  when  I  saw  the  automatic  rotation  of  the  claws  in  the 
young  hoatzin  as  its  wing  spread,  I  realized  that  the  condi- 
tions were  identical  in  the  two  forms,  and  that  the  unusual 
posture  of  the  claws  in  Archaeopteryx  was,  after  all,  quite 
normal.  It  is  a  position  wholly  unlike  that  in  the  wing  claws 
of  any  other  bird.  The  twist  occurs  chiefly  in  the  phalangial 
joint,  but  partly  as  well  in  the  basal  joint  of  the  thumb. 

I  was  surprised  to  learn  how  exclusively  arboreal  were 
these  nestling  hoatzins.  I  once  saw  an  adult  bird  alight  on 
the  ground,  but  rather  from  inability  to  fly  farther  than  of 
its  own  intention.  When  Schomburgk,  in  the  third  volume 
of  his  Reisen  in  Britisch  Guiana,,  writes  that  he  saw  a  flock 
of  several  hundred  which  "chased  each  other  from  branch  to 
branch,  while  others  ran  about  upon  the  ground,"  he  was 
either  romancing  or  else  confused  these  birds  with  trumpet- 
ers. They  do  not  run  nor  even  walk  upon  the  ground. 

My  young  hoatzins  were  as  helpless  as  seals  on  solid 
ground,  their  toes  crumpling  up  and  their  feet  practically 
useless  for  progression.  In  attempting  to  go  ahead  the  bird 
fell  forward,  extended  its  wings  wide  and  clawed  vigorously 
at  the  ground,  pulling  itself  awkwardly  along,  while  the  feet 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS 


175 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 
FIG.  44.    YOUNG  HOATZIN  ATTEMPTING  TO  PROGRESS  ON  SOLID  GROUND. 

kicked  out  helplessly  behind.     In  this  mode  of  progress  it 
closely  resembled  a  sloth  on  solid  ground. 

If  a  single  straight  twig  were  brought  within  reach,  the 
head  was  crooked  over  it  to  such  an  extent  that  the  bill  was 
upside  down  and  the  upper  neck  bent  into  a  complete  circle. 
With  this  grip  once  secured  the  bird  hung  suspended,  and 
reached  frantically  upward  with  feet  and  wings,  the  feet 
nearer  the  head,  the  wings  farther  away.  Usually  a  claw 
on  the  fore-finger  was  the  first  to  catch.  This  secured,  the 
long  middle  toe  of  the  opposite  foot  curled  around  the  stem. 
Straining  steadily,  the  little  bird  chinned  itself  and  for 
a  moment  stood  upright.  The  head  loosened  and  rose  in 
mid-air,  the  wing  claws  uncurled  and  the  skinny  pinions 
reached  toward  the  sky.  It  was  an  epitome  of  its  past  evolu- 
tion ;  it  was  a  bird  at  last. 


176         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

But  the  victory  was  momentary.  A  frantic  wave  and 
clutch  at  the  empty  air,  and  it  pitched  forward  and  hung 
upside  down.  This  time  it  was  suspended  by  the  toe  grip, 
which,  useless  upon  level  ground,  was  its  strongest  safeguard 
among  branches.  It  was  almost  impossible  to  pull  a  fledg- 
ling hoatzin  from  the  branch  when  once  its  feet  had  obtained 
a  firm  hold.  Each  toe  had  to  be  uncurled  in  turn.  The  sec- 
ond righting  was  a  quicker  matter,  more  skillfully  achieved. 
The  chin  hold  was  taken  at  once  and  the  wing  claws  fol- 
lowed. If  a  well-twigged  branch  were  now  placed  within 
reach,  the  bird  easily  retained  its  upright  position  and 
climbed  with  facility,  wing  over  wing. 

The  illustrations  from  drawings,  of  the  young  hoatzins, 
which  for  many  years  have  done  duty  in  volume  after  vol- 
ume of  our  ornithological  literature,  are  almost  without  ex- 
ception incorrect.  To  consider  only  one  instance,  the  widely 
copied  drawing  by  Baldwin,  which  first  appeared  in  the  pub- 
lications of  the  United  States  National  Museum,  errs  in 
representing  the  young  bird  as  gripping  a  twig  in  its  man- 
dibles. In  all  my  experience  I  have  never  observed  this,  al- 
though the  chin  hold  is  the  most  common  method  of  begin- 
ning a  climb.  It  is  this  habit,  which,  carelessly  observed,  led 
to  the  mistaken  idea  that  the  bird  actually  grasped  the  twig 
in  its  beak.  In  the  same  drawing  the  second  hoatzin  nest- 
ling is  shown  as  standing  almost  flat-toed  on  the  upper  sur- 
face of  a  branch,  a  position  which,  as  we  know  from  its  in- 
ability to  stand  for  a  moment  upon  flat  ground,  is  impossible. 

In  the  water  I  found  that  the  young  hoatzin  displayed 
two  very  distinct  methods  of  progression.  If  dropped  into 
a  deep  basin  or  tub,  it  always  landed  head  first,  even  when  it 
had  to  turn  partly  over  in  mid-air  to  accomplish  this.  Al- 
most at  once  it  came  to  the  surface,  the  head,  neck  and  tail- 
feathers  projecting,  and  the  back  being  flush  with  the  sur- 
face. It  would  start  to  swim  immediately,  easily  but  slowly. 
It  held  its  wings  extended  loosely  on  each  side  so  that  they 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS 


177 


Photo  by  W.  B. 

FIG.  45.     YOUNG  HOATZIN  SWIMMING  TOWARD  THE  RIGHT:  HEAD,  WINGS, 
BACK  AND  TAIL  SHOWING. 

were  just  flush  or  occasionally  a  little  above  the  surface.  The 
feet  alone  furnished  the  means  of  progression,  moving  with 
alternate  kicks,  the  toes  reaching  out  on  the  forward  move- 
ment and  curling  around  when  the  back  stroke  was  made. 
If  I  moved  my  hand  suddenly  toward  the  bird,  or  even 
if  the  shadow  cut  it  off  for  an  instant  from  the  direct  sun- 
light, it  dived  at  once,  the  first  dip  carrying  it  four  to  six 
inches  beneath  the  surface.  The  feet  became  passive,  dang- 
ling uselessly  and  quite  relaxed,  back  of  the  tail,  while  the 
wings,  moving  together  with  graceful,  synchronous  beats, 
swept  the  bird  forward  with  strong,  rhythmic  strokes. 
Twelve  to  sixteen  inches  were  covered  with  each  submarine 
wing  beat,  the  movement  and  general  effect  being  that  of  a 
diminutive  penguin. 


Photo  liy  W.  ]i. 

FIG.  46.    YOUNG  HOATZIN  CLIMBING,  SHOWING  USE  OF  THUMB  AND 
FOREFINGER  WITH  THEIR  CLAWS. 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS  179 

The  nestling  hoatzin  could  see  distinctly  beneath  the 
surface  and  never  bumped  into  submerged  branches  nor  the 
sides  of  its  small  pool,  but  avoided  them  with  a  quick  turn. 
This  was  achieved  either  by  a  stronger  stroke  of  one  wing, 
or  by  a  sudden  flick  of  the  long  feather  sheaths  of  the  tail. 
Several  times  I  saw  birds  turn  well  over  on  their  sides,  ca- 
reening sharply  as  they  banked  on  some  short  turn  to  the 
left  or  right.  Twenty  feet  was  the  greatest  distance  I  saw 
them  swim,  but  were  they  forced  to  do  so  they  could  undoubt- 
edly cover  several  times  this  distance. 

Nothing  has  been  definitely  recorded  of  the  method  of 
feeding  of  the  young  hoatzins,  but  this  time  at  a  distance 
of  less  than  fifteen  feet,  I  was  able  to  watch  the  parent  feed- 
ing the  nestling  by  regurgitation.  It  was  quite  a  leisurely 
affair.  The  old  bird  would  rise  on  the  nest  and  without  fur- 
ther shifting  her  position,  reach  down  beneath  her  and  open 
her  bill.  The  nestling  craned  his  neck  upward  and  thrust 
his  head  well  down  her  throat,  where  he  pecked  and  fed  for 
ten  to  twenty  seconds.  Then  she  righted  herself,  swallowed 
several  times,  shook  her  head  and  the  feeding  was  ended. 

The  keel  of  the  breastbone  of  these  birds  is  greatly  re- 
duced by  the  abnormally  large  crop,  but  the  small  extent 
of  keel  which  does  succeed  in  reaching  the  skin  is  in  constant 
use  as  a  perching  cushion.  Even  in  the  nestlings  it  is  splayed 
out  and  the  skin  over  it  somewhat  calloused  by  the  constant 
pressure  of  the  bird's  body  against  the  twigs  and  branches. 

A  fact  which  was  quite  new  to  me  was  the  molting  of 
the  wing  claws.  In  the  two  weeks'  old  nestling  these  were 
as  curved  and  sharp  as  the  claws  of  a  cat.  Examination  of 
young  birds  in  various  stages  of  growth  showed  that  the 
claws  on  both  thumb  and  fore-finger  are  shed  at  least  twice 
in  the  first  eight  months.  This  reminded  one  of  the  several 
renewals  of  the  flight  feathers  in  the  first  few  months  of 
life  of  some  other  birds,  and  the  cause  is  doubtless  the  same 
—the  constant  use  of  the  claws  and  the  feathers  resulting 
in  considerable  wear  in  a  very  short  time,  which  for  the 


180         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

safety  of  the  young  bird  must  be  compensated  by  constant 
activity  in  the  renewal  of  these  structures. 

When  we  find  the  claws  in  a  three-quarter  grown  bird 
worn  to  stubs  with  no  trace  of  the  hooked  tip  remaining, 
or  perhaps  with  one  claw  just  shed,  and  then  in  fully  adult 
birds  with  the  fresh,  sharp,  curved  talons  deep  hidden  among 
the  long  wing  feathers,  it  seems  as  if  Nature  had  for  once 
nodded,  and  preserved  a  character  beyond  the  scope  of  its 
usefulness. 

The  first  volume  of  a  book  on  "The  Birds  of  British 
Guiana,"  by  Charles  Chubb  has  just  appeared.  Mr.  Chubb 
has  not  had  the  opportunity  of  observing  living  hoatzins  and 
this  enforced  writing  at  second  hand  has  resulted  in  a  num- 
ber of  errors  which  should  be  corrected.  First  as  regards 
the  two  figures.  That  of  the  head  of  the  bird  shows  the  wav- 
ing crest  too  flattened.  The  bird  seems  to  have  little  or  no 
control  over  the  dermal  cranial  muscles,  and  the  long,  dis- 
integrated crest  feathers  are  always  raised,  standing  almost 
erect  and  giving  to  the  bird  a  wild,  startled  appearance,  even 
when  it  is  sleepy  and  about  to  put  head  under  wing.  Figure 
twelve,  the  wing  of  the  young  bird,  is  quite  wrong  in  anat- 
omy, both  in  the  number  of  claws,  the  position  of  the  thumb 
and  the  general  proportions.  In  the  measurements  of  the 
adult  bird  the  total  length  is  taken  evidently  from  a  dried 
skin,  as  it  is  given  as  555  millimetres.  Even  a  three-quarters 
grown  bird  measures  at  least  590  mm.,  while  a  fully  adult 
hoatzin  is  not  less  than  620  mm.  in  length.  In  his  extra- 
limital  range  Chubb  makes  no  mention  of  either  Venezuela, 
Dutch  or  French  Guiana,  in  all  of  which  countries  hoatzins 
are  well  known  to  occur. 

The  nestling  hoatzin  shown  in  my  frontispiece  photo- 
graph was  about  two  weeks  old  and  was  taken  in  a  nest  on 
the  lower  Berbice  River  on  May  26.  The  following  notes 
characterized  all  the  young  birds  of  this  age  which  I  ob- 
served or  photographed.  The  short  down  already  showed 
the  pigment  patterns  of  the  adult,  the  sides  and  flanks  being 


NOTES  ON  HOATZINS  181 

distinctly  chestnut,  while  the  secondaries  and  tail  feathers 
showed  the  huffy-white  markings.  The  remainder  of  the 
down  was  a  dark  brownish  black,  paler  on  the  chin  and 
throat. 

There  were  three  thumb  feathers  in  the  alula,  extend- 
ing almost  to  the  tip  of  the  claw,  but  these  interfered  not  at 
all  with  its  use,  as  it  worked  forward  and  inward,  reaching 
out  at  right  angles  to  the  claw  of  the  first  finger.  The  tail 
feathers  were  the  longest  and  strongest  of  all  of  the  sprout- 
ing plumage,  this  precociousness  unquestionably  having  to 
do  with  their  rudder  function. 

The  upper  mandible  was  brownish  black,  the  lower 
greenish  horn ;  the  iris,  olive-brown ;  the  legs  and  feet  black. 
These  were  very  large  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  bird. 

Thrashing  about  with  their  flight  feathers  through  the 
thorny  branches,  the  plumage  of  these  birds  suffers  unusual 
wear  and  tear,  and  it  is  seldom  that  an  individual  can  be 
found  with  perfect  wing  and  tail.  The  six  months'  old 
hoatzins  were,  however,  in  full  molt.  The  molt  of  the  five 
pairs  of  tail  feathers  is  peculiar,  beginning  almost  simul- 
taneously with  the  outer  and  inner  pairs  and  progressing 
evenly  toward  the  third  pair.  One  bird  showing  this  par- 
ticularly well  had  the  following  retrice  formula,  the  right 
and  left  sides  corresponding : 

1st  tail-feather  (inner)  three-quarters  grown 

2nd  pair  blood  sheath 

3rd  pair old,  unshed 

4th  pair one-quarter  grown 

5th  pair  (outer) new,  nearly  full-grown 

This  same  individual  showed  the  primaries  about  half 
through  their  molt,  which  was  progressing  outward: 

1st  primary  (inner),  and  2nd    new,  full  grown 

3rd nearly  grown 

4th  ...  ..   blood  sheath 


182         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

5th  to  10th  old,    unshed,    the    shafts 

lined  thickly  with  mal- 
lophaga  eggs. 

The  secondaries  showed  two  nodes  of  molt.  Beginning 
with  the  10th  a  molt  was  progressing  outward,  and  with  the 
1st  (outer)  another  molt  had  commenced  inward: 

1st  secondary  (outer)  one-half  grown 

2nd  to  7th old,  unshed 

8th  and  9th blood  sheaths 

10th  one-half  grown 

llth,  etc old,  unshed 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    HOMES    OF   TOUCANS 

If  toucans  did  not  exist,  an  account  of  their  character- 
istics, of  their  form,  their  color  and  actions  would  be  consid- 
ered as  the  result  of  a  disordered  brain,  or  the  wilful  repre- 
sentation of  a  cubist  artist,  worthy  to  be  depicted  as  perching 
on  the  same  branch  with  a  phoenix.  But  we  must  accept 
them  as  living,  breathing  birds,  whose  vivid  patterns  and 
penetrating  voices  announce  their  presence  in  abundance  in 
the  Guiana  jungle.  Their  legs  are  short  and  their  arboreal 
progression  is  by  an  absurd  hopping;  their  long  tails,  fre- 
quently in  the  daytime  and  always  in  sleep,  are  cocked  at  a 
seemingly  impossible  angle  over  their  back;  their  enormous 
beaks  should  belong  to  birds  four  times  the  size  of  the  own- 
ers; while  through  the  center  of  this  beak  extends  a  slim, 
feather-like  tongue,  occupying  the  same  relative  space  as 
would  an  umbrella-rib  in  a  balloon.  All  these  and  other  less 
obvious  characters  have  made  of  toucans  objects  of  acute 
interest  to  ornithologists,  and  subjects  of  mirth  and  wonder 
to  laymen  for  the  two  hundred  odd  years  since  these  birds 
became  fairly  well  known. 

The  details  of  their  first  discovery  are  lost  to  us,  but 
we  know  that  as  early  as  1599,  the  old  Italian  naturalist 
Ulisse  Aldrovandi  had  distinguished  the  toucan  as  Rham- 
phastos,  which  means  that  he  was  thinking  in  Greek  of  its 
curved  beak.  In  the  word  toucan,  we  are  speaking,  more 
happily,  in  the  native  tongue  of  South  American  Indians, 
who  knew  these  birds  and  used  their  plumage  for  decoration 
long  before  Columbus  shattered  the  barriers  of  their  peace- 
ful isolation.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  skins  of  the 
toco  toucan  were  among  the  first  birds  to  be  sent  to  Eu- 
rope after  the  discovery  of  America. 


184         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

There  are  about  seventy  forms  of  toucans  alive  on  the 
earth  today,  and  their  home  is  in  the  tropical  jungles  of  the 
New  World,  from  the  lowland  forests  of  southern  Mexico 
to  the  outlying  palm  groves  of  northern  Argentina.  The 
bill  is  the  dominant  character  in  these  birds,  occasionally 
exceeding  the  body  in  length  and  almost  equaling  it  in  bulk. 
In  most  forms  these  exaggerated  mandibles  of  horn,  togeth- 
er with  the  bare  skin  of  the  face,  are  stained  and  splashed 
with  the  most  brilliant  and  glaring  of  pigments.  The  plu- 
mage itself  is  parti-colored,  marked  on  various  parts  with 
patches  and  bands  of  bright  color. 

In  spite  of  the  interest — both  popular  and  technical — 
which  these  birds  have  aroused,  and  the  papers  and  mono- 
graphs which  they  have  inspired  in  ornithological  literature, 
their  life  history  has  remained  almost  a  blank.  Our  meagre 
knowledge  of  these  bizarre  forms  of  life  was  summed  up 
over  a  century  ago  by  Levaillant  in  a  single  sentence:  "Les 
kouliks  sont  fort  communs  a  Cayenne,  a  Surinam,  et  dans 
toute  la  Guyane;  ils  vivent  dans  les  bois,  nickent  dans  des 
trous  d'arbres,  et  frequentent  les  lieux  cultives,  ou  ils  cau- 
sent  beaucoup  de  degate  aux  fruits." 

They  thrive  well  in  captivity,  but  show  no  inclination 
to  nest  or  lay  eggs.  The  sole  exception  is  the  instance  of 
a  toucanet  (Selenidera  maculirostris) ,  which  in  July,  1913, 
hatched  one  young  in  the  London  Zoological  Gardens.  No 
details  were  recorded  of  this  interesting  occurrence.  A  sup- 
posed egg  of  the  yellow-billed  toucan  (Pteroglossus  flavi- 
rostris),  collected  by  Indians  in  Peru  has  been  described 
several  times.  * 

In  their  tropical  haunts  toucans  are  among  the  most 
conspicuous  of  birds,  both  to  the  eye,  as  when  a  pair  flies 
slowly  overhead,  or  a  small  flock  is  seen  hopping  awkwardly 

'The  most  recent  reference  to  this  egg  is  in  the  Catalogue  of  Birds'  Eggs 
in  the  British  Museum,  III,  1903,  p.  137.  It  is  described  as  "elliptical  in  shape, 
the  ends  being  somewhat  pointed,  moderately  glossy,  and  plain  white.  The  shell 
is  smooth,  but  is  covered  with  shallow  pores  and  longitudinal  furrows  or  grooves, 
extending  more  or  less  from  one  end  of  the  egg  to  the  other.  It  measures  1.3 
by  .92  inches." 


HOMES  OF   TOUCANS 


185 


FIG.  47.     RED-BILLED  TOUCAN 


among  the  branches ;  and  to  the  ear,  as  their  voices  rise  above 
all  the  usual  jungle  sounds,  both  in  timbre  and  in  insistant 
reiteration.  And  yet  toucans  might  well  be  as  mythical  as 
the  phoenix  or  the  roc,  for  all  we  know  about  their  home 
life  in  the  top  of  the  jungle.  Up  to  the  present  time  no 
definite  account  exists  of  the  finding  of  the  nest  or  the  eggs 
and  young  of  any  species  of  these  birds.  In  common  with 
many  explorers,  I  frequently  have  seen  these  birds  enter 
and  leave  holes  high  up  in  gigantic  forest  trees  and  have 
longed  for  the  opportunity  of  looking  inside,  of  learning 
something  more  of  their  intimate  lives  than  a  glass  and  a 
gun  could  reveal.  So  when  I  planned  for  a  half  year  or 
more  of  intensive  study  in  one  tropical  locality  I  placed  the 
discovery  of  the  nest  of  these  birds  well  up  on  the  list  of 
things  which  I  intended  to  accomplish. 

The  excitements,  false  alarms,  disappointments  and 
ultimate  successes  which  marked  our  effort,  would  alone  fill 
an  entire  volume.  In  the  limited  area  of  Bartica  District 


Photo  by  P.  O.  II. 
FIG.  48.    DEAD  TREE  SHOWING  NESTING  HOLE  OF  GREEN  ARACARI  TOUCAN 


HOMES  OF  TOUCANS  187 

to  which  we  confined  our  studies  we  found  the  following 
five  species  of  toucans : 

Red-billed  Toucan  Rhamphastos  monilis  Muller 
Sulphur-and-white-breasted 

Toucan  Rhamphastos  vitellinus  Licht. 

Black-necked  Aracari  Pteroglossus  aracari  (Linn.) 

Green  Aracari  Pteroglossus  viridis  ( Linn. ) 

Guiana  Toucanet  Selenidera  culik  (Wagler) 

Between  the  dates  of  March  15  and  May  10,  we  had 
evidence,  either  direct,  or  indisputably  circumstantial,  of  the 
breeding  of  all  five  species,  and  had  secured  both  eggs  and 
young  birds.  But  these  results  came  only  after  days  and 
weeks  of  hard,  unremitting  search,  of  long  tramps  wholly  in 
vain,  and  of  many  consecutive  hours  of  steady  watching 
through  heat  and  rain. 

GREEN  ARACARI  TOUCAN 

Pteroglossus  viridis 

On  the  eighth  of  March,  Hartley  returned  to  Kala- 
coon  with  the  exciting  news  that  he  had  seen  small  aracari 
toucans  entering  a  hole  high  up  in  a  dead  tree.  This  was 
the  commonest  species  of  toucan  in  Bartica  district,  and 
this  observation  was  the  first  to  arouse  the  hopes  of  an  occu- 
pied nest.  The  dead  tree  stood  at  the  edge  of  the  jungle 
about  a  mile  away,  and  was  one  of  the  many  which  had  been 
killed  by  direct  exposure  to  the  sun's  rays  when  the  clear- 
ing had  been  made  nearby.  Its  barkless  branches  stretched 
high  above  the  surrounding  massed  foliage,  bleached,  chalky 
white,  and  seasoned  hard  as  iron.  On  one  of  the  uppermost 
angles  this  pair  of  toucans  perched,  and  worked  in  alternate 
shifts  at  an  old  woodpecker's  hole.  They  propped  them- 
selves against  the  tree,  thrust  their  great  beaks  within  the 
hole,  and  presently  drew  out  and  dropped  bits  of  loose,  rot- 
ten wood.  Thus  began  the  nesting  of  the  green  aracaris 
on  March  8. 


Photo  ly  P.  G.  H. 

FIG.  49.    SAM.  OUR  NEGRO  CLIMBER.  SIXTY  FEET  UP  TOWARD  THE  FIRST 
LIMB  OF  THE  GREEN  ARACARI  TREE 


HOMES  OF  TOUCANS  189 

Two  days  later  one  of  the  birds  spent  considerable  time 
in  the  nest,  appearing  only  when  its  mate  approached.  At 
such  times  she  (thus  sexed  by  courtesy)  sat  with  projecting 
bill,  and  chattered  in  low,  raucous  accents,  or  accepted  offer- 
ings in  the  shape  of  berries  of  sorts  from  her  mate's  bill. 
A  week  later  she  seemed  even  more  preoccupied  and  seldom 
was  seen  outside.  The  male  now  flew  direct  to  the  hole  and 
fed  her  as  she  sat  inside  the  nest.  When  within  hearing  he 
occasionally  uttered  a  low  cicada-like  note,  repeated  three 
times,  deweeda-deweeda-deweeda,  given  with  the  bill  either 
open  or  shut. 

The  tree  was  a  favorite  perching  place  for  birds  of 
many  species  and  besides  the  nest  of  the  toucans,  two  other 
holes  were  occupied,  both  by  red- fronted  woodpeckers  (Mel- 
anerpes  rubrifrons),  whose  brilliant  black  and  scarlet  forms 
flashed  about  the  tree  all  day,  or  clung  like  dark  shadows 
to  the  side  of  the  whitened  bole.  One  of  the  woodpeckers' 
nests  was  only  two  feet  above  that  of  the  toucans. 

Two  weeks  after  the  discovery  of  the  birds'  nesting  ac- 
tivities we  felled  the  tree.  It  was  an  all-day  job,  and  it  took 
our  arboreal,  all  but  quadrumanous  negro  boy  Sam  several 
hours  to  ascend  to  the  first  branch  and  attach  a  guy  rope. 
His  method  of  climbing  was  unique  and  effective,  but  most 
laborious.  He  made  two  loose  slip  nooses  about  the  trunk 
of  the  tree,  and  a  small  hanging  loop  in  each  in  which  he 
put  his  feet.  With  a  guy  rope  tied  to  his  belt,  he  put  his 
full  weight  on  one  loop,  and  clasping  the  trunk  with  one 
arm,  he  hitched  the  second  rope  up  a  foot  or  two  and  shifted 
his  weight  to  its  loop,  the  force  of  the  oblique  downward  pull 
holding  the  noose  in  place  on  the  trunk.  Then  rope  number 
one  had  to  be  pulled  and  jerked  up  to  the  level  of  the  sec- 
ond. And  so,  foot  by  foot,  this  wonderfully  muscled  and 
persistent  youth  hitched  and  caterpillared  his  way  over  sixty 
feet  upward  to  the  lowest  branch,  guyed  it  and  slid  down. 

The  iron  quality  of  the  seasoned  trunk  turned  the  edge 
of  two  axes,  but  at  last  the  topmost  branch,  one  hundred 


FIG.  50.    TALL.  STRAIGHT  NESTING  TREE  OF  RED-BILLED  TOUCAN 


HOMES  OF   TOUCANS  191 

and  fifty  feet  above  the  ground,  swayed  and  swept  down- 
ward. Just  before  the  tree  fell  and  after  it  had  quivered 
and  resounded  for  hours  to  the  blows  of  the  axe,  both  tou- 
cans entered  and  left  the  nesting  hole.  Exhilarated  by  this 
emphatic  circumstantial  evidence  we  searched  eagerly  and 
found  the  remains  of  the  hole.  We  enlisted  the  aid  of  a 
score  of  coolies,  we  examined  every  leaf  and  blade  of  grass 
in  the  glade,  every  chip  and  splinter  passed  under  our  scrut- 
iny, but  in  spite  of  the  most  minute  examination  of  the 
ground,  no  trace  of  shell  or  young  was  ever  discovered.  The 
male  bird  which  we  then  secured  was  in  full  breeding  con- 
dition, but  our  first  toucan  quest,  fostered  by  many  days  of 
vivid  anticipation,  ended  in  complete  failure.  There  was  no 
shred  of  doubt  that  the  birds  had  not  yet  deposited  eggs  in 
the  nest  which  they  had  so  laboriously  prepared,  and  for  two 
weeks  had  occupied  almost  constantly. 

GUIANA   TOTJCANET 

Selenidera  culik 

These  little  green  toucans  were  not  common,  and  it  was 
by  sheer  accident  that  we  learned  anything  of  their  nesting. 
Whenever  I  passed  near  any  benab  or  small  hamlet  of  In- 
dians, usually  Akawais,  I  always  asked  for  news  of  the  vari- 
ous toucans,  all  five  of  which  they  knew  well,  and  for  which 
they  had  very  definite  names.  As  my  boat  was  passing 
along  the  west  bank  of  the  Mazaruni  one  day  early  in  April, 
I  saw  some  Indian  women  squatting  on  a  sloping  rock,  vig- 
orously pounding  clothes.  I  sang  out  and  asked  in  succes- 
sion for  "katching,  palaflek  and  kamata."  At  the  last  word 
an  old,  old  squaw  called  something,  and  landing,  I  found 
that  an  Indian  in  a  neighboring  benab  had  two  young  birds 
in  his  possession.  A  girl  consented  to  show  the  way,  so  we 
entered  a  narrow  trail  in  the  deep  jungle  and  walked  several 
hundred  yards  to  a  thatched  benab,  from  which  swung  two 
hammocks,  and  which  at  this  moment  sheltered  an  old  tooth- 


192         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

less  man,  three  dogs,  two  women  and  four  children,  two 
trumpeters,  a  parrot  and  a  curassow.  I  looked  eagerly  about 
for  the  young  toucanets  but  the  benab  held  no  other  visible 
living  creatures  than  those  I  have  enumerated.  Upon  in- 
quiry I  found  that  both  birds  had  died  that  very  morning 
and  had  been  thrown  into  the  river,  where  of  course  the  perai 
fish  had  devoured  them  at  once.  I  asked  to  see  the  nesting 
tree  and  was  led  to  a  tall  palm  with  a  good-sized  hole  in  the 
western  side  of  the  trunk,  about  thirty  feet  up.  At  the  edge 
of  the  cassava  clearing,  three  toucanets  were  calling  and 
flying  restlessly  about,  and  the  Indian  woman  pointed  to 
these  as  the  owners  of  the  hole.  The  young  birds,  the  squaw 
said,  had  no  feathers.  This  was  April  15th,  and  sums  up 
our  experience  with  nesting  toucanets. 

A  month  later  we  found  this  species  in  full  molt,  shed- 
ding not  only  the  body  and  wing  feathers,  but  scaling  off 
pieces  of  the  beak  as  well. 

RED-BILLED  TOUCAN 

Rhampkastos  monilis 

The  fates  were  quite  impartial  in  their  distribution  of 
favors,  and  the  next  toucanine  thrill  came  to  Howes  as  he 
was  passing  along  a  trail  with  mind  and  eyes  concentrated 
on  no  higher  forms  of  life  than  wasps  and  bees.  From  al- 
most the  first  walk  I  had  taken  in  this  part  of  the  jungle 
I  had  observed  and  tried  to  mark  down  some  of  the  half 
dozen  big  red-billed  toucans  which  fed,  and  called  and 
climbed  hereabouts.  But  they  continued  to  climb,  or  call 
or  feed  as  the  case  might  be,  and  utterly  refused  to  reveal 
any  interest  in  a  possible  mate,  or  nest,  or  young.  Yet  the 
fact  that  day  after  day  they  did  not  roam  widely,  but  kept 
within  sight  or  hearing  of  the  trail  was  suspicious  enough 
to  keep  alive  our  constant  interest. 

Sitting  quietly  among  the  undergrowth  near  the  trail- 
side,  Howes  was  endeavoring  to  follow  the  gyrations  of  a 


HOMES  OF  TOUCANS  193 

small  wasp  whose  actions  seemed  to  indicate  that  her  cell 
was  nearby.  Happening  to  glance  upward,  he  saw  a  tou- 
can, one  of  the  red-billed  species,  sitting  on  a  branch  close 
to  a  hole  in  a  great  tree  about  forty  feet  from  the  ground. 
The  bird  slipped  quietly  from  sight  almost  at  once,  but  the 
evidence  was  extremely  strong.  The  tree  was  a  kakaralli 
(Lecyihis  sp.),  not  of  great  girth,  but  tapering  so  gradu- 
ally that,  sixty  feet  up,  its  diameter  seemed  hardly  less  than 
at  the  ground.  While  lacking  the  wide,  sweeping  buttresses 
of  the  morass,  it  yet  gave  the  impression  of  tremendous 
strength  and  longevity.  From  its  upper  branches  depended 
a  whole  nexus  of  intertwined  lianas,  themselves  in  some 
cases,  as  large  as  good-sized  tree  trunks. 

This  was  on  March  27,  and  for  three  days  we  watched 
silently  and  in  turn,  and  at  last  were  satisfied  that  this  was 
indeed  the  home  of  the  red-billed  toucan.  No  creature  short 
of  a  monkey  or  squirrel  could  have  scaled  that  great  trunk, 
so. on  the  third  day  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  in  a  fairly 
hard  rain,  we  started  out  on  our  third  toucan  adventure. 

We  cut  in  turn  as  usual,  five  minutes  of  the  punishing 
effort  being  all  that  our  muscles  and  soft  palms  would  stand. 
The  leaves  dripped  on  all  sides;  they  shone  and  glistened; 
every  twig  was  black  with  moisture.  Xow  and  then  in  the 
midst  of  the  downpour,  at  an  unusually  loud  ring  of  the 
axe,  a  goldbird  called — silvery,  piercing,  thrilling — a  call 
full  of  pent-up  virility  and  wildness.  Fortunately  for  us 
the  majestic  tree  was  soft  at  the  heart,  else  the  raw  blisters 
would  have  compelled  us  to  wait  for  another  day. 

The  last  few  cuts  were  always  wildly  exciting.  A  shout 
from  one  of  the  watchers  at  a  distance,  warned  me  that  the 
end  was  near,  although  from  my  place  close  to  the  butt  no 
swaying  was  perceptible.  Then  I  bit  deeply  with  the  axe 
and  a  faint  snap  was  heard — like  the  snap  of  a  small  twig — 
the  beginning  of  the  death  rattle  of  the  splendid  giant. 
There  was  no  need  of  another  cut,  the  deciding  fibre  had 


I'lKjto  by  I1.  U.  U . 

FIG.   51.  NEST  OF.  RED-BILLED  TOUCAN  SHOWING  ENTRANCE  AND  BASE.  THE 
LATTER  OPENED  OUT  WITH  AX 


HOMES  OF  TOUCANS 


195 


Photo  by  P.  Q.  H. 
FIG.  52.    EGGS  AND  NESTING  MATERIAL  OF  RED-BILLED  TOUCAN 

been  cleft.  No  human  power  could  now  undo  the  harm  al- 
ready wrought,  yet  for  a  few  seconds  which  seemed  minutes, 
there  was  no  movement,  no  sound.  Even  the  rain  had  ceased. 
The  goldbirds  were  silent. 

Then,  still  without  a  sound,  the  great  trunk  gently 
leaned  away,  and  slowly,  very  slowly,  began  its  final  descent. 
A  huge  liana  cable,  half  way  up,  snapped  with  a  sharp  re- 
port, then  there  were  no  more  isolated  sounds,  but  a  gradu- 
ally ascending  roar,  like  the  sudden  onslaught  of  a  great 
hurricane.  Trees,  saplings  and  palms,  whole  riggings  of 
lianas,  and  finally  shrubs  and  tree-ferns  went  down  like 
grass  before  the  terrific  impact  of  the  tree.  With  a  deep 
reverberating  boom  the  trunk  struck  the  ground  and  re- 
bounded. It  was  a  hollow,  subdued  explosion  of  sound  as  of 
some  subterranean  catastrophe,  and  was  plainly  heard  at  the 


196         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

laboratory,  two  miles  away.  The  trunk  then  settled  and  was 
at  rest. 

The  work  of  rain,  and  sun,  and  protoplasm,  through 
all  the  days  and  months,  the  years  and  centuries,  was  ended. 
The  myriad  of  seedlings  all  about,  would  now  for  a  space 
have  renewed  life,  until  some  one  of  them  gained  a  slight 
advantage,  and  the  rest  bowed  their  heads  in  defeat,  drawing 
what  moisture  and  light  they  could,  and  beginning  their  long 
wait  for  another  accident  such  as  this. 

For  a  few  minutes  we  danced  about  helplessly,  not  dar- 
ing to  rush  in,  for  long  after  the  tree  had  fallen  a  perfect 
hail  of  branches,  leaves,  nuts  and  torn  lianas  hurtled  down. 
When  it  was  comparatively  safe  we  ran  to  the  hole.  Swiftly 
we  relieved  one  another  with  the  ax  and  cut  deep  into  the 
hollow.  The  entrance  was  through  an  old,  decayed  knot- 
hole, the  butt  of  a  branch  long  since  dead  and  fallen.  This 
opening  was  three  by  six  inches  in  diameter  and  the  cavity 
turned  abruptly  downward.  When  we  had  widened  it,  1 
could  just  get  my  hand  inside,  but  by  dint  of  much  wrig- 
gling I  forced  my  arm  down  to  the  elbow,  but  could  find  no 
bottom.  Sounding  with  a  pliable  bush  rope  I  found  that 
the  base  of  the  cavity  was  about  a  yard  down  the  trunk. 
We  cut  out  a  slice  at  this  point  and  found  a  large  quantity 
of  mold,  mixed  with  various  pits,  and  nuts  and  seeds.  Some 
of  these  were  quite  fresh,  others  had  sprouted  in  the  dark- 
ness, showing  ghostly  white  stems  and  rootlets. 

For  a  time  we  turned  this  over  and  over  in  vain.  Not 
so  much  as  a  feather  rewarded  us,  and  as  failure  again 
loomed  ominously  before  us,  we  became  poignantly  aware 
of  our  bleeding  hands  and  sodden  clothing.  Then  from  the 
midst  of  the  mold  shone  a  gleam  of  white  and  no  pocket 
of  nuggets  ever  drew  from  any  discouraged  group  of  min- 
ers, a  more  joyful  chorus  of  yells  than  burst  from  us.  And 
no  pile  of  jackstraws  was  ever  more  carefully  disentangled 
than  was  that  mass  of  mold,  and  wood  and  seeds.  One  by 
one  we  removed  the  particles  of  debris,  and  when  we  finished 


HOMES  OF   TOUCANS  197 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 

EGGS  OF  RED-BILLED  TOUCAN 
Natural  size. 


we  had  found  the  vaguely  reputed  two  eggs,  one  punctured 
in  two  places,  the  other  quite  perfect. 

Blisters,  rain,  ant  stings,  tired  muscles,  all  became  sub- 
conscious. We  trudged  happily  home,  forgetful  of  the  three 
hours  of  toil  in  the  realization  of  one  of  the  chief est  of  our 
desires,  jubilant  with  the  thrill  of  having  solved  one  of  the 
little  mysteries  of  the  earth,  a  mystery  of  such  slight  moment 
to  practical  humanity  at  large,  but  so  satisfying  to  the  seeker 
of  la  verite  vraie. 

When  we  came  to  examine  our  treasures,  we  found  the 
eggs  to  be  white  or  pinkish  white,  the  tint  being  that  of  the 
contents  showing  through  the  shell.  They  were  somewhat 
stained  by  contact  with  the  mold  and  the  acid  moisture  from 
the  decayed  wood.  The  small  end  was  blunt,  the  general 
shape  being  that  of  a  diminutive  hen's  egg.  The  two  were 
identical  in  measurement,  each  being  37  by  27  millimetres. 
They  contained  living  embryos  of  about  a  week  old.  The 
shell  was  without  gloss  and  sparsely  covered  with  small  pits. 
Slight  but  plainly  visible  grooves  extended  down  the  central 
portion  of  the  shell,  irregular  lines  connecting  many  of  the 
pits.  To  the  naked  eye  the  lines  showed  as  very  faint  color- 
less striations,  and  required  a  close  glance  to  detect. 


Photo  by  W.  B. 
FIG.  54.    TREE  WITH  NESTING  HOLE  OF  BLACK-NECKED  ARACARI 


HOMES  OF  TOUCANS  199 

From  March  to  July  the  notes  of  the  red-billed  toucans 
were  one  of  the  commonest  of  jungle  sounds,  but  by  August 
the  birds  seemed  to  have  become  much  more  quiet,  and  we 
seldom  had  our  attention  drawn  to  them.  At  this  time  they 
were  usually  seen  in  trios — doubtless  parents  and  a  single 
young,  or  in  flocks  of  five  or  six. 1  The  molt  was  completed 
in  a  number  of  individuals  as  early  as  the  first  week  in  July. 

BLACK-NECKED  AKACARI 

Pteroglossus  aracari 

Across  the  Mazaruni,  just  beyond  the  limit  jungle- 
wards  of  the  Penal  Settlement  clearing,  we  noticed  that  a 
pair  of  these  toucans  haunted  the  vicinity  of  a  tall,  unknown 
jungle  tree.  Its  white  trunk  rose  smooth  and  straight  as 
a  palm,  high  above  the  surrounding  bush,  and  at  a  great 
height  from  the  ground  burst  into  a  wide-branched  mass  of 
foliage.  The  birds  did  more  calling  and  climbing  about  this 
tree  than  seemed  consistent  with  mere  disinterested  search 
for  food. 

Just  above  the  first  branch  a  blackened  knot-hole  was 
not  quite  free  from  suspicion  and  we  set  up  an  amiable  mur- 
derer and  a  pleasant  burglar  to  watch  the  hole  while  his 
companions  cut  firewood  in  the  vicinity.  Hope,  one  of  the 
trusties,  an  interesting  forger,  and  a  particular  friend  of 
ours,  at  last  brought  word  that  the  birds  were  entering  and 
leaving,  and  he  volunteered  to  fell  the  tree  single-handed. 
This  he  did  in  three  hours  on  the  morning  of  April  15.  To 
cut  down  such  a  tree  anywhere  else  in  the  world  would  have 
been  nothing  less  than  criminal.  Here,  as  a  giant  among  a 
continent  of  giants,  it  was  of  no  more  consequence  than  the 
breaking  of  a  blade  of  grass. 

As  the  cutting  went  on,  the  parent  toucans  hopped  si- 
lently about  in  the  neighboring  trees,  silent  except  for  the 
occasional  loud  whirr  of  their  wings.  When  at  last  they 

1  See  the  notes  on  this  species  which  I  published  in  "Our  Search  for  a  Wil- 
derness," 1910,  p.  327. 


200 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  by  P.G.H. 
FIG.  55.    FRONT  VIEW  OF  TEN -DAY -OLD  ARACARI 

were  convinced  that  we  actually  intended  an  assault  upon 
their  home,  they  became  greatly  excited  and  went  through 
a  series  of  remarkable  gymnastics.  They  drew  themselves 
up  to  their  full  slim  height,  then  bowed  low  and  jerked  their 
tails  flat  upon  their  back.  They  continually  uttered  their 
alarm  notes,  a  creaky  psssssssk !  psssssss !  This  activity  pro- 
duced an  indiscribable  display  of  color,  the  great  black  and 
yellow  beaks  never  quiet  for  a  moment,  the  black  upper 
parts  set  off  by  the  saffron  breast  and  belly,  which  half  way 
down  were  slashed  across  with  scarlet.  When  the  tree  fell, 
the  birds  disappeared,  and  only  by  careful  search  were  we 
able  to  find  and  secure  them. 

The  great  head  of  springy  branches  brought  the  trunk 
to  rest  more  gently  than  is  usually  the  case  with  a  falling 
tree.  Hope  went  to  the  hole,  thrust  in  his  hand  and  drew 


HOMES  OF   TOUCANS 


201 


FIG.  56.    SIDE  VIEW  OF  TEN -DAY -OLD  ARACARI 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 


forth  two  nestling  toucans.  These  were  the  first  that  any  orni- 
thologist had  ever  seen,  and  as  some  facetious  layman  later 
observed,  it  seemed  hardly  worth  the  trouble!  They  were 
quite  naked,  a  sickly  leaden  in  hue,  hideously  wrinkled,  their 
movements  vermian  rather  than  birdlike.  And  as  if  the  ocu- 
lar offensiveness  were  not  sufficient,  they  gave  utterance  un- 
ceasingly to  a  raucous,  irritating  cry,  long  drawn  out  and 
querulous. 

To  us,  their  weird,  uncouth  characteristics  made  them 
the  more  desirable.  For  years  we  had  longed  to  lay  eyes 
upon  nestling  toucans,  and  now  we  found  them  with  char- 
acters beyond  our  utmost  expectations.  The  rather  psychic 
fact  that  their  penchant  was  for  ugliness  was  only  incidental. 
Had  they  been  equally  beautiful  they  would  have  been  no 
less  interesting. 


202         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 
FIG.  57.    SIDE  VIEW  OF  SEVENTEEN -DAY -OLD  ARACARI 

We  placed  them  in  an  artificial  cavity,  fed  them  with  a 
varied  assortment  of  fruits  and  berries,  and  in  due  time 
chloroformed  them  for  preservation  and  future  study.  Their 
fatal  fault  was  youth;  their  doom  immaturity.  Had  they 
been  full-grown  they  would  not  have  been  disturbed,  or 
would  have  been  brought  to  live  out  their  long  span  of  years 
at  the  Zoological  Park.  But  youth  is  evanescent  and  the 
youth  of  these  birds  can  teach  much  of  the  genealogical  tree 
up  which  their  more  or  less  toucanesque  ancestors  hopped 
their  way  through  the  checkered  eons  of  evolution.  But  that 
is  a  story  for  another  volume. 

In  the  course  of  many  years  of  exploration  in  various 
parts  of  the  tropics  I  have  cut  down  scores  of  trees  to  get 
at  nests  containing  eggs  or  young  birds,  and  it  is  a  source 
of  never-ending  astonishment  how  seldom  these  are  injured. 


HOMES  OF  TOUCANS  203 

Occasionally  an  egg  is  cracked  or  a  nestling  is  lamed,  but 
usually  they  are  in  perfect  condition. 

So  in  the  present  case,  after  falling  from  a  height  of 
fifty  feet,  knocking  and  banging  around  a  deep  cavity  and 
at  the  last  rebound  being  flung  almost  out  of  the  entrance, 
the  nestling  toucans  were  quite  unharmed.  Never  for  an 
instant  did  they  cease  their  cries  for  food.  This  kept  up 
all  day  and  at  intervals  throughout  the  night.  From  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning  it  was  unceasing,  and  we  had  to  ban- 
ish the  young  birds  to  a  distance  in  order  to  work  without 
distraction.  Only  the  brain-fever  bird  of  India  excels  the 
hunger  call  of  a  young  toucan  in  sheer  maddening,  irritating 
reiteration.  It  was  a  never-varying,  raucous  auuuuuk! 
auuuuuk!  auuuuuk!  auuuuk!  repeated  over  and  over.  AVhen 
food  was  given  the  harsh  cry  was  broken  into  series  of  more 
liquid  gurgles.  Then  followed  a  moment  of  silence  as  the 
beakful  of  berries  was  swallowed,  and  the  next  instant — 
auuuuuk!  auuuuuk!  began  again. 

If  one  of  the  hourly  feedings  was  missed,  the  young 
toucans  went  into  fits  of  rage  and  flung  themselves  about, 
biting  one  another  or  the  lining  of  the  artificial  nest.  Their 
usual  position  was  resting  on  the  heel-pads  with  the  feet  and 
toes  held  up  helplessly  in  mid-air,  the  wings  dangling  at  the 
sides,  the  back  humped  and  the  bill  pointing  forward.  Most 
absurd  was  the  tail,  as  innocent  of  feathers  as  the  rest  of  the 
bird,  which  was  slanted  upward  and  forward  until  it  fairly 
touched  the  back.  When  disturbed  and  nudged,  the  beak 
was  opened,  raised  obliquely,  and  repeatedly  stabbed  up- 
ward with  the  blind  confidence  that  food  would  be  forth- 
coming from  exactly  that  point  in  all  space.  Simultane- 
ously, the  tail  wagged  vigorously.  It  is  easy  to  describe  the 
separate  motions.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  convey  the  weird 
unbirdlike  effect  of  the  whole  performance. 

The  helpless  condition  of  the  feet  was  the  most  inex- 
plicable thing  about  these  birds.  They  invariably  rested  on 
the  hind  part  of  the  body  and  on  the  two  heel-pads,  a  tri- 


204         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIG    58.     HEEL-PAD  OF  TEN-DAY-OLD  ARACARI  TOUCAN 
a.  Side  view  of  pad  on  left  leg.      6.  Bottom  view  of  left  pad.      c.  Bottom  view  of  right  pad. 

podal  position  from  which  it  was  impossible  to  shift  them. 
They  absolutely  refused  to  make  any  use  of  the  feet  or  toes. 
Indeed,  any  considerable  change  of  position  was  impossible, 
the  patagium  or  web  of  skin  between  the  tibia  and  the  tarsus 
being  stretched  at  such  tension  that  the  leg  could  not  be 
extended  more  than  at  a  right  angle  or  a  little  over  ninety 
degrees. 

While  the  nestling  hoatzin  is  a  true  quadruped,  the 
young  toucan  is  just  as  certainly  a  tripod,  at  least  during 
the  first  weeks  of  its  existence. 

On  the  day  I  secured  the  two  birds  I  estimated  their 
age  at  about  ten  days.  There  was  little  or  no  difference  in 
size  between  them.  One  which  I  kept  under  close  observa- 
tion showed  almost  no  hint  of  the  coloring  of  the  adult. 
The  mandibles  were  dark  slaty  horn  color  along  the  upper 
and  basal  margins,  paling  toward  the  cutting  edges  and  at 
the  tip  to  a  light  yellow. 

The  bare,  wrinkled  skin  of  the  body  was  pinkish  flesh 
with  the  feather  tracts  showing  leaden  blue.  The  feet  and 
legs  were  bright  yellowish  green.  The  skin-covered  sheaths 


HOMES  OF  TOUCANS 


205 


FIG.  59.     HEEL-PAD  OF  SEVENTEEN-DAY-OLD  ARACARI  TOUCAN 
o.  Side  view  of  pad  of  left  leg.      6.  Bottom  view  of  left  pad.       c.  Bottom  view  of  right  pad. 

of  the  body  feathers  were  bluish  with  the  exception  of  those 
of  the  under  parts.  At  a  point  half  way  down  the  neck,  the 
feather  tract  bifurcated,  one  of  these  pectoral  branches  end- 
ing beneath  the  wing  and  the  other  continuing  down  the 
inside  of  the  thighs.  I  mention  these  because  of  their  pale 
yellow  pigment,  prophetic  of  the  adult  coloration.  A  hint  of 
red  pigment  was  visible  on  the  breast  feathers,  correspond- 
ing, however,  only  to  the  half-concealed  line  of  scarlet 
which,  in  the  full-grown  birds,  lies  between  the  black  and 
yellow  of  the  under  parts.  There  was  no  trace  in  the  nest- 
ling of  the  very  conspicuous  scarlet  belly  band  and  the  patch 
of  the  same  color  on  the  lower  back.  These  are  characters 
which  have  evidently  been  evolved  rather  recently. 

Ten  primaries  were  well  sprouted,  the  1st  much  the 
shortest,  the  6th  longest,  although  the  3rd,  4th,  5th  and  6th 
were  of  almost  equal  length  (1st,  7  mm.;  6th,  18  mm.). 
There  were  fourteen  remaining  flight  feathers  grading  in 
size  from  the  outer  secondary  inward  (outer,  14  mm.;  inner, 
the  24th,  2  mm. ) .  The  secondaries  were  uniformly  stouter 
than  the  primaries.  The  coverts  were  short,  not  projecting 


206         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

beyond  the  hinder  edge  of  the  wings.  The  pelvic  wing * 
was  well  marked,  and  extended  from  the  anterior  border 
of  the  thigh  back  almost  across  the  patagium.  It  consisted 
of  eighteen  feathers  in  an  ascending  line.  The  2nd  to  the 
10th  had  lower  coverts,  eight  in  all. 

Five  pairs  of  tail  feathers  were  well  developed,  and  at 
first  glance  there  seemed  to  be  only  four  pairs  of  upper  co- 
verts. Closer  observation  showed  a  tiny  fifth  pair.  The 
coverts  had  been  pushed  up  until  the  two  central  pairs  of  tail 
feathers  seemed  to  be  quite  covertless. 

I  have  mentioned  the  heel  pad  at  the  ankle  joint.  This 
is  a  serrated  or  more  properly,  toothed  pad  of  horn,  capping 
the  joint  between  the  tibio-tarsus  and  the  tarso-metatarsus. 
It  fits  like  the  elbow  pad  of  a  football  player,  and  during 
the  period  when  the  feet  are  helpless,  it  serves  as  a  secondary 
set  of  toes,  on  which  the  nestling  can  rest,  and  awkwardly 
stump  about  the  nest  cavity. 

As  the  egg-tooth  of  the  common  chick  and  indeed  of 
the  toucans  as  well,  is  a  purely  embryonic  character,  so  this 
heel-pad  is  wholly  concerned  with  the  nestling  period.  It 
has  been  briefly  described  in  other  birds  such  as  wood- 
peckers. * 

The  pad  is  roughly  oval  and  in  general  appearance  re- 
calls the  molar  tooth  of  an  elephant.  The  cusps  are  variable, 
there  being  twelve  on  the  left  pad  and  eleven  on  the  right. 
The  rim  of  the  structure  is  pale  bluish.  The  bases  of  the 
cusps  are  yellow,  while  the  face  of  the  large  anterior  cusps 
is  very  hard  and  pigmented  with  brownish  black.  It  is  re- 
markable how  close  the  resemblance  is  to  blunt  claws  or 
actual  teeth.  The  two  anterior  ones  have  sharp,  projecting 
cutting  edges  which  catch  and  hold  anything  which  touches 
them. 


'Vide  "A  Tetrapteryx  Stage  in  the  Ancestry  of  Birds,"   Beebe,  'Loologicu, 
II,  1915,  pp.  39-52. 

'Proc.  Zool.  Soc.   London,   1913,  pp.   1095-1096. 


HOMES  OF  TOUCANS  207 

The  eyes,  at  this  stage,  are  hardly  open,  being  mere  wa- 
tery slits.  The  cutting  edge  of  the  mandibles  is  straight  for 
three-fourths  of  the  entire  length,  when  it  curves  abruptly 
downward.  This  is  very  unlike  the  gradual  downward  curve 
along  the  entire  length  of  the  mandible  which  is  shown  in 
the  bill  of  the  old  bird. 

One  of  the  young  toucans  was  kept  for  two  weeks,  until 
the  feathers  had  broken  well  out  of  their  sheaths.  Another 
year,  when  the  intermediate  stages  are  obtained,  both  of 
embryos  and  fledglings,  we  may  hope  to  glean  some  real 
light  on  the  ancestry  of  these  remarkable  birds. 


SULPHUR- AND-WHITE-BREASTED  TOUCAN 

Rhamphastos  vitellinus 

My  experience  with  the  nesting  history  of  this  splendid 
toucan,  the  fifth  and  last  species  which  we  observed,  was 
rather  an  anti-climax  to  the  success  which  crowned  our  work 
with  the  preceding  species. 

I  was  in  the  midst  of  the  jungle  on  the  19th  day  of 
May,  watching  a  yellow-billed  jacamar  hawking  after  in- 
sects from  a  monkey-ladder,  when  my  glance  went  upward 
to  a  patch  of  sky  across  the  brilliant  sunshine  of  which  a 
deluge  of  rain  drops  seemed  to  be  pouring.  Another  glance 
told  me  it  was  a  cloud  of  winged  ants,  and  soon  I  saw  the 
sharply  defined  limits  of  the  swarm,  myriads  upon  myriads 
of  the  insects  drifting  like  motes  through  the  upper  reaches 
of  the  jungle. 

My  ear  was  next  assailed  by  a  subdued,  raucous  sound, 
a  sound  strangly  familiar.  It  was  some  minutes  before  I 
could  recall  where  I  had  heard  this,  but  at  last  the  memory 
of  the  two  young  toucans,  which  we  had  kept  at  Kalacoon, 
came  vividly  to  mind.  Two  weeks  before,  they  had  given 
us  no  peace  and  none  of  us  was  likely  to  forget  that  irritat- 
ing eruption  of  sound  which  scarcely  ceased  day  or  night. 
Another  voice  now  joined  in  and  I  knew  I  was  listening  to 


FIG.  60.     LEFT  HEEL-PAD  OF  TEN-DAY-OLD  ARACARI  TOUCAN.  SHOWING 
RELATION  TO  LEG  AND  TARSUS 


HOMES  OF   TOUCANS  209 

the  hunger  cries  of  a  pair  of  nestling  toucans,  hidden  in  some 
hollow  high  overhead. 

Fifteen  minutes  passed  before  a  toucan  appeared,  a  big 
sulphur-and-white-breasted  one,  who  instantly  discovered 
me,  scolded  for  a  minute  and  vanished.  Before  the  morning 
passed,  a  troop  of  red  howling  monkeys  made  their  way  leis- 
urely along  the  topmost  branches.  Both  toucans  appeared 
and  mobbed  the  monkeys,  following  them  for  some  distance. 
I  got  no  clue,  for  any  momentary  delay  on  the  part  of  a 
monkey  appeared  to  arouse  the  same  anxiety  in  any  one 
of  a  half  dozen  great  trees. 

On  the  following  day  we  came  with  three  Indian  axe- 
men. Guided  by  the  cries  we  chose  a  tree  and  felled  it,  but 
the  several  hollows  contained  nothing  more  exciting  than 
giant  tree  crickets  and  equally  huge  grubs  of  rhinoceros 
beetles.  The  voices  of  the  young  birds  had  ceased  at  the 
first  axe  stroke,  so  we  had  no  further  guidance.  A  second 
tree  yielded  nothing,  and  we  were  forced  to  desist,  for  the 
mass  of  tangled  branches  and  lianas  made  all  movement 
impossible.  The  jungle  kept  this  secret  inviolate  from  us. 


Photo  by  P.  O.  H. 

FIG.  61.     MID-JUNGLE  HIDING  UNDISCOVERED  NEST  OF  SULPHUR-AND- 
WHITE-BREASTED  TOUCAN 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

By  William  Beebe  and  G.  Inness  Hartley 

In  the  course  of  our  season's  search  for  the  young  birds 
which  we  required  for  certain  problems,  we  came  across 
many  interesting  nests.  Some  were  of  unusual  architec- 
tural construction,  others  were  remarkable  because  of  their 
adaptive  form  or  coloring,  still  others  possessed  the  distinc- 
tion of  being  undescribed,  quite  new  to  man's  scientific  rec- 
ord. The  majority  of  the  notes  made  upon  all  of  these 
classes  have  been  filed  awaiting  publication  when  further 
details  and  more  complete  information  as  to  their  method 
of  construction  or  reason  for  requiring  protection,  are 
secured. 

-  It  seems  desirable  to  record  the  nests  and  eggs  which 
have  not  heretofore  been  described  or  are  almost  unknown, 
especially  as  I  am  able  to  supplement  the  descriptions  with 
photographs.  The  species  are  as  follows : 

Talpacoti  Ground  Dove Chaemepelia  talpacoti  (Temm.  &  Knip.) 

Red   Mountain    Dove Geotrygon  montana   (Linn.) 

White-necked     Crake Porzana  albicollis  Vieill. 

Cayenne   Crake Creciscus  viridis   (P.  L.  S.  Mull.) 

Dusky    Nighthawk Caprimulgus  nigrescens  Cab. 

Guiana   Tyrantlet Tyranniscus  acer  (Salv.  &  God.) 

Oily   Flycatcher  Mionectes  oleagineus  oleagineus  (Licht.) 

Varied   Flycatcher Empidonomus  varins  varius  (Vieill.) 

Cinereous    Bushbird Thamnomanes  caesius  glaucus  Cab. 

Rufous-fronted   Antcatcher Anoplops  rufigula  rufigula  (Bodd.) 

Quadrille-bird  Leucolepia  musica  musica  (Bodd.) 

Orange-headed   Manakin  Pipra  aureola  aureola  (Linn.) 

Brown-breasted  Pygmy 

Grosbeak     Oryzoborus  angolensis  brevirostris  (Berlepsch) 

Chestnut-bellied     Seedeater Sporophila  castaneiventris  Cab. 

Black-headed  Seedeater Sporophila  bouvronides  (Less.) 

Blue    Honey-Creeper Cyanerpes  cyaneus  cyaneus  (Linn.) 

Moriche  Oriole  Icterus  chrysocephalus  (Linn.) 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  213 

TALPACOTI   GROUND   DOVE. 

Chaemepelia  talpacoti  (Temm.  &  Knip.) 

We  found  the  nests  of  this  common  little  ground  dove 
usually  in  low  bushes,  seldom  more  than  six  feet  from  the 
ground.  The  nest  was  nothing  more  than  a  thin  platform 
of  small  twigs  or  grass  stems,  varying  according  to  the  indi- 
vidual. It  had  no  true  inner  lining  but  the  material  for  the 
nest  hollow  graded  in  fineness.  The  whole  structure  was 
about  10  cm.  long,  and  the  slight  depression  for  the  eggs 
2  cm.  deep. 

The  two  eggs  were  pure  glossy  white  with  measure- 
ments averaging  22.5  x  18  mm.  Two  was  the  usual  normal 
number,  but  one  and  very  rarely  three  were  found  in  a  nest. 
It  was  one  of  the  commonest  nests  to  be  discovered  during 
the  months  of  February,  March  and  April,  and  seemed  espe- 
cially marked  as  a  prey  for  nest  ravagers.  Not  more  than 
half  the  young  ever  reached  maturity,  which  made  it  very 
probable  that  the  parents  raised  more  than  one  brood  a  year. 

RED  MOUNTAIN  DOVE. 

Geotrygon  montana   (Linn.) 

Though  one  of  the  common  jungle  residents,  the  red 
mountain  dove  was  seldom  seen,  for  it  merged  so  completely 
with  its  surroundings  that  one  passed  it  by,  time  after  time, 
without  ever  knowing  that  such  a  bird  existed.  If  it  were 
discovered,  careful  watch  had  to  be  kept  or  it  would  seem- 
ingly disappear  where  it  sat.  The  nest  was  equally  difficult 
to  find  and  usually  could  only  be  discovered  by  frightening 
the  bird  from  the  eggs.  If  it  thought  there  were  a  chance 
to  escape  undetected,  the  parent  would  quietly  slip  from  the 
nest  to  the  ground,  run  a  few  steps  and  noiselessly  flutter 
to  a  protecting  branch  without  the  hunter  being  aware  of 
its  presence. 

The  nests  were  built  away  from  the  ground,  the  dis- 
tance varying  from  a  foot  to  five  feet.  The  bird  usually 


Photo  by  P.  O.  H. 


FIG.  63.     NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  WHITE-NECKED  CRAKE 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  215 

selected  the  head  of  an  old  rotted  stump  or  the  fork  of  a 
low  outhanging  branch,  or  possibly  the  horizontal  surface 
of  an  old  gnarled  liana  that  ran  close  to  the  ground.  The 
nest  itself  was  a  concave  platform  of  twigs  lined  with  leaves 
on  which  rested  the  two  dark,  cream-colored  eggs.  The  nest 
in  the  accompanying  illustration  (Fig.  62)  was  lined  in  the 
same  way,  but  some  of  the  leaves  were  green  and  freshly 
picked  so  that  the  whole  structure  had  an  effect  of  not  exist- 
ing at  all  in  the  green  mass  of  foliage  that  grew  around  it. 
The  habit  of  mingling  green  leaves  with  brown  was  doubly 
significant  from  the  fact  that  other  nests  found  on  stumps 
and  lianas,  where  there  was  no  surrounding  green,  were 
lined  only  with  dead  brown  leaves  which  made  them  just  as 
hard  to  see  in  their  individual  locality.  The  coloring  of  the 
eggs  was  no  aid,  for  they  nearly  matched  the  leaves  on  which 
they  lay. 

The  main  nesting  season  was  during  the  months  of 
April  and  May,  though  it  possibly  commenced  earlier.  The 
average  measurements  of  the  eggs  were  26.5  x  19.5  mm. 

WHITE-NECKED  CEAKE. 

Porzana  albicollis  Vieill. 

Many  nests  of  this  species  were  brought  in  by  coolies 
who  were  clearing  the  grass  from  among  the  trees  of  the 
rubber  estate.  They  were  always  placed  on  the  ground  be- 
tween clumps  of  the  tough  savannah  grass  and  often  near 
the  base  of  an  old  stump  that  survived  as  a  memory  of  for- 
mer forest  days,  sheltered  by  its  projecting  roots.  The  nest 
was  a  large  open  bowl-shaped  affair  built  entirely  of  coarse 
dried  savannah  grass  roughly  woven  together  with  perhaps 
a  few  dead  rubber  leaves  to  strengthen  the  weak  places.  It 
was  about  20  cm.  in  diameter  by  10  cm.  high,  the  nesting 
cup  being  10  cm.  wide  and  5  cm.  deep. 

The  number  of  eggs,  in  the  dozen  or  more  sets  exam- 
ined, varied  from  two  to  three,  though  it  has  been  said  that 


216         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

the  bird  sometimes  lays  as  many  as  six  eggs.  There  was 
great  variation  in  size  and  shape,  some  being  long,  oval 
and  sharply  pointed  at  the  small  end,  while  others  were 
much  shorter  and  nearly  round.  The  range  of  variation  was 
about  12  per  cent.  The  ground  color  also  varied  from  a 
light  pinkish  cream  to  almost  white,  with  the  large  end  usu- 
ally heavily  marked  with  fine  spots  of  chocolate  brown  and 
lilac  grey.  The  lighter  eggs  as  a  rule  had  fewer  spots  sparse- 
ly scattered  over  the  whole  surface.  Some  few  had  no  spots 
at  all  and  were  hard  to  distinguish  from  the  following  spe- 
cies. The  average  measurements  were  34  x  26  mm. 

The  nesting  season  was  at  its  height  in  May,  though 
eggs  were  brought  to  us  from  February  to  July.  It  is  prob- 
able that  some  nests  could  be  found  during  every  month  of 
the  year. 

CAYENNE  CRAKE 

Creciscus  viridis.     (P.  L.  S.  Miiller) 

The  home  of  this  exceedingly  tame  little  rail  differed 
greatly  from  the  one  just  described.  It  was  round  and 
looked  like  a  large  baseball,  from  which  the  cover  had  been 
torn  to  show  the  weaving  of  the  threads,  hanging  among 
the  reeds  or  low  bushes  in  overgrown  clearings.  The  rather 
large  entrance  was  on  the  side  beneath  the  domed  roof,  and 
the  walls  were  woven  around  the  several  thick  stems  that 
supported  the  nest.  The  bird  used  much  the  same  material 
in  construction  as  did  P.  albicollis — grass  blades,  leaves  and  a 
few  weed  stems,  but  the  nest  was  a  much  stronger  and  more 
skillful  piece  of  engineering.  It  measured  about  20  cm.  in 
diameter  with  a  depth  in  the  inner  cup  of  about  6  cm. 

The  Cayenne  crake  remained  on  the  nest  until  the 
searcher  was  within  a  few  feet,  and,  if  it  thought  it  had  not 
been  observed,  would  remain  until  the  nest  had  been  touched. 
Then  there  was  a  quick  flash  of  bright  red  legs  and  the  bird 
disappeared  into  the  surrounding  cover.  While  it  remained 
on  the  nest  filling  the  opening,  it  so  blended  in  color  with 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 


217 


Photo  by  W.  B. 


FIG.  64.    NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  CAYENNE  CRAKE 


the  grass  that  no  entrance  could  be  seen  and  the  whole  affair 
looked  like  an  ordinary  ball  of  dried  material  that  had 
chanced  to  lodge  among  the  reed  stems.  Upon  its  disap- 
pearance, however,  the  white  of  the  eggs  in  the  light  of  the 
entrance  made  a  guiding  mark  for  the  observer. 

The  eggs,  as  in  the  former  species,  varied  much  in  size 
and  shape,  but  were  rather  glossy  pure  white  without  any 
spots.  The  average  dimensions  were  32.8  x  25.7  mm., 
though,  among  the  several  sets  examined,  there  was  a  varia- 
tion of  11  per  cent.  The  number  in  each  set  was  two  to  three, 
three  being  the  usual  number. 

We  secured  nests  from  February  to  August,  but  May 
was  the  chief  nesting  month.  Probably  a  few  birds  nest 
throughout  the  whole  year. 


FIG.  65.     EGG  OF  DUSKY  NIGHTHAWK 


Photo  by  I'.  (J.  II. 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  219 

DUSKY  NIGHTHAWK 

Caprimulgus  nigrescens.    Cab. 

Like  other  members  of  its  family  the  dusky  nighthawk 
laid  its  one  egg  on  the  ground.  It  was  naturally  a  bird  of 
the  forest,  where,  from  time  to  time,  it  flushed  almost  from 
under  one's  feet,  but  it  also  took  advantage  of  the  work  of 
man  and  could  be  seen  in  the  overgrown  Indian  clearings 
hiding  among  the  rank  weeds  that  grew  there.  When 
frightened  from  its  egg  it  limped  away  like  many  another 
species  and  crouched  in  a  conveniently  exposed  spot  to  at- 
tract the  attention  of  the  hunter  to  itself  and  from  its  home. 
Even  then  the  bird  was  hard  to  see,  for  no  matter  where  it 
rested,  the  outlines  of  the  body  melted  into  the  surround- 
ings. The  egg,  if  anything,  was  still  harder  to  detect,  and 
our  experienced  hunter  often  searched  for  many  minutes  be- 
fore he  succeeded  in  locating  it.  Though  there  was  no  nest 
built  one  could  sometimes  find  the  egg  by  looking  for  a  faint 
ring  of  smooth  earth  which  had  been  swept  clean  of  fine 
debris  by  the  movements  of  the  sitting  bird. 

A  well  incubated  egg  was  discovered  on  April  26,  near 
a  trail  that  led  to  the  jungle  through  an  old,  burnt-over  clear- 
ing. Both  parents  were  there  close  together,  one  crouching 
on  the  egg  and  the  other  a  few  feet  away.  I  picked  up  the 
egg,  examined  it  and  placed  it  back  in  the  same  position, 
with  the  idea  of  returning  soon  to  take  it.  Two  days  later 
I  visited  the  same  spot  and  again  flushed  the  two  parents, 
but  at  first  could  not  find  the  egg  though  its  position  had 
been  marked.  It  seemed  to  have  disappeared,  but  a  pro- 
longed search  at  last  located  two  lichened  pieces  of  wood 
about  a  yard  away.  One  proved  to  be  the  egg,  the  parents 
evidently  having  moved  it.  The  lichen  acted  as  a  counter 
imitation  of  the  markings  of  the  shell. 

The  ground  color  was  a  light  pinkish  buff,  sparsely 
covered  with  scrawled  blotches  of  chocolate  brown,  which 


FIG.  66.    NEST  OF  GUIANA  TYRANTLET 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  221 

overlaid  larger  spots  of  greyish  purple  and  lilac.    The  meas- 
urements were  26.5  x  19  mm. 


GUIANA  TYRANTLET 

Tyranniscus  acer  (Salv.  &  God.) 

I  had  returned  from  a  hard  walk  in  search  of  trumpeter 
chicks — in  vain,  and  had  been  straightway  recompensed  by 
the  discovery  of  the  nest  of  a  sunbittern,  and  the  flat  plat- 
form and  single  white  egg  of  a  splendid  pigeon.  The  day's 
work  seemed  ended,  and  I  lay  on  my  back  waiting  for  the 
dugout  to  return  from  a  trip  up  river.  Idly  I  watched  a 
tiny  bird — a  flycatcher — flitting  about  high  overhead,  in  the 
very  summit  of  a  mango  tree.  Presently  it  dived  into  a 
bunch  of  moss,  one  of  a  dozen  on  some  dead  branches,  but 
did  not  immediately  appear  again.  I  waited  and  still  it 
remained  invisible.  From  a  condition  of  lazy  inattentive- 
ness,  I  sat  up,  imbued  with  concentrated  interest,  and  felt 
for  my  glasses,  my  eyes  never  leaving  the  tuft  of  moss.  The 
closest  scrutiny  revealed  nothing,  and  I  was  half  tempted 
to  believe  that  the  bird  had  eluded  me.  But  the  insatiable, 
inexplicable  will-to-learn,  the  fluid  life,  as  Bergson  would 
have  it,  overcame  the  sloth  of  the  material  body,  and  up  I 
went.  I  climbed  swiftly,  so  that  I  might  keep  beyond  the 
ever-increasing  area  of  irate  ants,  and  finally  touched  the 
branch.  My  flycatcher  shot  out,  and  raising  his  diminutive 
crest,  scolded  me  roundly  for  my  unwarranted  intrusion. 
The  nest  was  most  ingeniously  hidden  and  I  could  not  find 
the  entrance  until  I  had  carried  it  to  the  ground  and  exam- 
ined it  carefully.  The  owner  was  a  Guiana  tyrantlet,  one 
of  the  most  inconspicuous  of  his  great  flycatcher  family,  and 
one  of  the  smallest,  less  than  four  inches  in  length.  He  was 
olive  and  grey,  with  his  wing  feathers  touched  with  yellow; 
and  his  voice  was  sharp,  unmelodious,  and  several  sizes  too 
large. 


FIG.  67.    NEST  OF  OILY  FLYCATCHER 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  223 

But  what  he  lacked  in  splendor  of  garb  and  sweetness 
of  tone  was  more  than  compensated  by  his  skill  in  archi- 
tecture. 

The  nest  was  composed  chiefly  of  fresh  growing  moss 
intermixed  with  the  green  calyxes  of  mango  blossoms.  The 
whole  was  bound  together  with  interwoven  tendrils  of  young 
vines.  The  interior  lining  of  the  deep  cup  was  made  up  of 
five  consecutive  layers  of  material,  making  with  the  bird  on 
the  nest,  an  absolutely  waterproof  pocket.  The  outer  layer 
was  of  coarse  fibre,  the  second  of  animal  hair,  the  third  of 
wild  cotton,  the  fourth  of  animal  hair,  and  the  fifth,  the  inner, 
of  wild  cotton.  The  inner  layer  was  very  thick  and  at  the 
bottom  formed  an  exceptionally  soft  bed  for  the  eggs. 

The  outside  diameter  of  the  nest  was  10  cm.,  with  a 
depth  of  8  cm.  The  interior  cup  was  4  cm.  in  diameter  at 
the  top,  by  6  cm.  deep. 

The  two,  small,  dull-white  eggs  were  rather  heavily 
marked  at  the  larger  end  with  small  spots  of  chestnut,  under- 
laid with  specks  of  lilac,  the  tendency  being  to  form  a  ring. 
A  few  tiny  specks  wrere  scattered  over  the  entire  shell,  but 
were  so  small  as  to  be  scarcely  noticeable.  The  shell  was 
very  thin.  The  two  eggs  averaged  16  by  12.5  mm. 


OILY  FLYCATCHER 

Mionectes  oleagineus  oleagineus  (Licht.) 

The  nest  of  this  species  was  really  a  duplicate  of  other 
forest  flycatcher  hangnests — -Colopterus,  Rhyncliocyclus  and 
probably  many  others  whose  nests  are  unknown.  Hanging 
from  small  vines  in  the  densest  forest,  usually  close  to  the 
ground,  it  looked  like  some  large,  mossy,  cornucopia-shaped 
fruit,  fastened  pear-like  by  its  little  end.  The  entrance,  near 
the  bottom  and  to  one  side,  was  hidden  from  sight  of  the 
casual  observer,  by  overhanging  tendrils  of  living  moss 
which  acted  effectively  as  a  curtain.  Upon  entering  its  home 
the  bird  found  itself  in  a  narrow,  upward  slanting  tunnel 


224         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

that  led  to  a  hole  in  the  roof  of  the  cave  in  which  rested  the 
eggs.  It  was  necessary  for  her  to  push  through  this  open- 
ing and  to  drop  gently,  with  the  utmost  care,  upon  the  eggs 
below.  The  parent  was  then  within  a  tiny  cup  of  a  room 
whose  walls  were  thickly  lined  with  soft  hair,  backed  by 
fine  shreds  of  jungle  bark. 

The  body  of  the  nest  was  composed  entirely  of  living 
tree  moss  skillfully  woven  together  to  form  a  waterproof 
mass.  Scattered  through  this  were  a  few  small  roots  and 
strips  of  bark  to  give  stiffening  to  the  structure.  The  inner 
lining  was  composed  entirely  of  this  material,  closely  packed 
together  until  it  formed  a  soft  and  impenetrable  mat.  With- 
in this  was  the  lining  of  animal  hair,  thicker  at  the  bottom, 
upon  which  the  two  or  three  white  eggs  were  deposited.  The 
whole  nest  was  about  30  cm.  high  and  13  cm.  wide  at  the 
bottom.  The  entire  interior  room  had  a  depth  of  9  cm.,  but 
the  nest  cup  proper  was  only  5  cm.  deep  with  a  diameter 
of  4  cm. 

When  placed  very  low  in  the  undergrowth  the  nest  of 
the  oily  flycatcher  was  very  hard  to  find.  It  agreed  so  thor- 
oughly with  its  surroundings  in  the  dull  jungle  twilight  that 
one  would  pass  it  by  again  and  again  without  noticing  the 
outlines  against  the  dark  green  background,  or,  if  seen,  it 
would  be  taken  for  an  over-large,  naturally  drooping  bunch 
of  moss. 

The  first  nest  I  discovered  was  hanging  from  a  small 
liana  about  18  inches  from  the  ground  in  a  dark  thicket.  My 
knee  accidentally  struck  against  it,  but  I  would  have  passed 
on  without  noticing  if  the  mother  bird,  startled,  had  not 
flown  up,  seemingly,  from  beneath  my  feet.  I  cautiously 
moved  back  behind  a  conveniently  thick  bush  not  ten  feet 
away  and  waited  for  her  to  return.  She  did  so  in  a  very 
few  minutes  and  quickly  disappeared  into  the  hidden  tunnel 
of  her  home.  A  few  quick  steps,  and  with  my  hand  over 
the  hole  she  was  my  prisoner.  This  occurred  on  the  last  day 
of  March. 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  225 

There  were  three  eggs  in  the  nest,  all  of  a  dull  gloss- 
less  white,  and  rather  pointed  at  one  end.  The  shells  were 
thin  and  had  small  striations  or  corrugations  running  from 
the  middle  to  the  small  end.  They  measured  21  x  14.5;  21 
x  14.5;  20  x  14.5  mm. 

VARIED  STREAKED  FLYCATCHER 

Empidonomus  varius  varius  (Vieillot) 

Though  the  eggs  of  this  species  have  been  collected,  no 
description  of  the  nest  has  been  given.  The  genus  Empi- 
donomus is  very  closely  allied  to  Tyrannus,  so  one  would 
expect  corresponding  nests.  They  proved  to  be  somewhat 
similar,  but  the  nest  of  Tyrannus  though  rather  a  shabby 
affair,  was  much  more  specialized  than  that  of  the  bird  in 
question.  In  Tyrannus  the  nest  hollow  was  cup-shaped  and 
well  lined  with  grass,  and  the  whole  structure  was  more 
skillfully  put  together  with  a  more  careful  gradation  of 
material. 

A  nest  of  the  varied  flycatcher  was  taken  on  April  20, 
from  one  of  the  outer  branches  of  a  small  dead  guava  tree. 
At  first  sight  it  appeared  to  be  merely  a  weak  flimsy  plat- 
form of  twigs  fashioned  like  the  nest  of  a  dove  and  placed 
in  an  exposed  position.  If  the  parent  birds  had  not  been 
seen,  it  might  easily  have  been  taken  for  the  nest  of  a  dove. 
It  was  built  in  a  small  fork  and  was  partly  supported  by  a 
dead  branch  that  grew  close  by.  Every  puff  of  wind  caused 
it  to  sway  and  shake,  and  it  was  difficult  to  believe  that  it 
would  not  soon  fall  to  pieces.  The  basic  material  was  small 
twigs  and  vine  stems.  In  the  center  was  a  shallow  depres- 
sion for  the  eggs,  which  was  lined  sparsely  with  coarse  stems 
of  a  common  weed  that  grew  hereabouts.  The  depth  of  the 
depression  was  2  cm.  and  the  whole  platform  was  13  cm.  in 
diameter,  by  8  cm.  in  height. 

There  were  two  eggs  in  the  nest,  one  of  wjiich  was  in- 
fertile. Measurements  averaged  23  x  16  mm. 


ORNITHOLOGICAL   DISCOVERIES  227 

CINEREOUS   BUSHBIRD 

Thamnomanes  caesius  glaucus  Cab. 

The  cinereous  bushbird,  though  one  of  the  commonest 
inhabitants  of  the  Guiana  jungle,  like  many  others  of  its 
kindred  is  but  little  known.  It  had  no  particular  pref- 
erence of  locality  but  could  be  heard  adding  its  voice  to  the 
general  chorus  in  any  of  the  small  groups  of  ant-thrushes 
that  continually  worked  their  way  through  the  jungle.  Dur- 
ing the  nesting  season — from  February  to  May — each  pair 
selected  a  certain  portion  of  the  forest  undergrowth  and 
floor  for  the  home  site  and  hunting  ground.  At  this  time 
they  did  not  greatly  mind  the  inroads  of  other  birds  on  their 
property  and  at  the  voices  of  a  passing  company  would 
occasionally  join  in  and  follow  for  some  distance,  but  the 
approach  of  man  was  hailed  with  shrill  cries  of  alarm,  an 
angry  flutter  of  wings,  and  a  fierce  snapping  of  bills.  Their 
food  consisted  entirely  of  insects — chiefly  ants  and  beetles. 

Judging  from  the  number  of  nests  found  in  March  and 
April  it  would  seem  as  if  these  were  the  two  main  nesting 
months.  The  nests  were  placed  in  the  forks  of  low  bushes, 
usually  in  the  densest  jungle  and  seldom  more  than  five  feet 
from  the  ground.  They  were  bowl-shaped  and  open,  but 
always  protected  by  a  roof  of  dried  leaves  placed  across  the 
branches  six  inches  above. 

The  nest  itself  was  composed  entirely  of  more  or  less 
rotted  leaves,  held  together  by  a  few  fine  root  fibres.  It 
was  lined  with  fresh  dried  leaves  and  often  with  a  very  thin 
lining  of  the  finest  roots.  The  whole  structure  had  a  very 
flimsy  appearance,  and  looked  like  a  plain  mass  of  leaves 
accidentally  collected  in  a  low  bush.  The  outside  diameter 
was  about  11  cm.,  but  the  interior  cup  was  only  6  cm.  across 
at  the  top  and  4.5  cm.  deep. 

The  birds  sometimes  gathered  their  building  material 
a  hundred  yards  or  more  from  the  nest.  It  was  interesting 
to  watch  them  carefully  select  a  leaf  from  the  thousands 


228 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  Inj  H'.  /(. 
FIG.  69.    NESTING  STUB  OF  RUFOUS-FRONTED  ANTCATCHER 

that  lay  about.  They  would  fly  to  the  nearest  log  with  it 
in  their  bill,  and  pound  it  against  the  hard  wood  until  it 
became  pliable  and  suitable  for  building  purposes.  Then 
it  was  a  matter  of  but  a  few  moments  to  carry  it  to  the  nest, 
place  it  and  return  for  more. 

The  two  eggs  were  a  very  pale  pinkish  white,  thickly 
covered  at  the  larger  end  with  brick  red,  hessian  brown  and 
lilac  blotches  which  were  scattered  more  sparsely  at  the 
smaller  end.  The  measurements  of  two  were  20  x  15;  21  x 
15  mm. 

RUFOUS-FRONTED   ANTCATCHER 

Anoplops  rufigula  rufigula  (Bodd.) 

I  had  been  milling  in  the  depths  of  the  jungle  for  many 
minutes,  around  and  around  a  tangle  of  lianas  which  a  great 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  229 

fallen  tree  had  brought  down  from  the  upper  reaches.  A 
nestling  had  eluded  me  and  now  a  sudden  mid-day  down- 
pour drove  me  to  the  sheltered  side  of  a  smooth-barked  tree, 
a  tree  which  leaned  just  enough  to  give  me  a  dry  roof.  As 
not  a  living  thing  was  visible  I  sought  in  my  game  bag  for 
sundry  reading  matter  on  the  adventitious  magazine  leaves 
which  I  carried  for  wrapping  up  birds.  I  enjoyed  five  min- 
utes of  a  damp,  but  delightful  review,  by  Lawrence  Gilman 
of  the  "Research  Magnificent."  Then  the  sun  burst  out  and 
illuminated  every  falling  drop. 

I  stepped  forth  upon  the  drenched  moss,  and  as  I  turned 
to  regain  the  animal  trail  I  had  been  following,  my  eye 
caught  a  glint  of  white,  and  deep  in  a  broken  hollow  stub 
were  two  white  eggs,  white  with  a  heavy  coating  of  spots 
and  splashes.  They  were  dry,  but  there  was  no  trace  of 
owner,  nor  in  the  succeeding  ten  minutes  did  any  bird  ap- 
pear. I  left  at  once — blazing  the  trees  as  I  went.  This 
was  on  June  23,  and  it  was  not  until  five  days  later  that  we 
saw  the  bird  and  knew  it  for  a  rufous-fronted  antcatcher. 
Completely  concealed  behind  a  clump  of  bushes  about 
twenty  feet  distant,  a  half  hour's  patience  was  needed  before 
the  brown  parent  appeared  flitting  through  the  underbrush 
close  to  the  ground,  clinging  always  to  upright  stems,  and 
circling  warily  about  the  nest.  A  single  movement  fright- 
ened it  away,  and  another  half  hour  passed  before  it  again 
was  seen.  When  secured  it  proved  to  be  a  male  bird.  It 
was  an  inconspicuous  seal-brown  above  and  dark  buffy  be- 
low with  a  rich  rufous  orange  throat.  The  most  obvious  char- 
acter was  the  fleshy,  prominent  eye  ring,  these  bluish-white 
areas  of  skin  being  quite  dominant  both  in  front  and  profile. 
The  nest  on  June  28,  contained  a  single  addled  egg  and 
a  nestling  about  a  day  old.  The  dead  and  broken  stub  was 
about  six  inches  in  diameter  and  three  feet  in  height.  It 
was  hollow  from  the  top  down  to  the  nest  which  was  placed 
about  nine  inches  from  the  ground,  just  below  the  opening 


230         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


o  by  W.  B. 


FIG.  70.     NEST  AND  EGG  OF  RUFOUS-FRONTED  ANTCATCHER 


of  the  stump.  The  nest  was  a  little  concave  affair  of  small 
twigs  and  vine  stems,  and  lined  with  a  few  pieces  of  coarse 
fibre.  It  was  only  about  three  inches  in  diameter.  As  we 
looked  into  the  cavity  we  could  see  the  one  light  egg  and  a 
round  white  circle,  which  upon  closer  examination  proved  to 
be  the  border  of  the  gaping  mouth  of  the  young  bird. 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  231 

The  egg  was  of  a  warm  pinkish  ground  color,  with  nu- 
merous dashes,  spots  and  blotches  of  purplish  red,  lilac  and 
lake,  the  largest  spots  at  the  large  end,  and  only  smaller 
dots  beyond  the  middle,  although  these  reached  sparingly 
the  small  end.  It  measured  21.5  x  17  mm.,  and  weighed 
three  grams. 

The  nestling  was  leaden  brown,  with  eyes  and  wing 
tracts  black;  the  bill  black  with  enormous,  milk-white  lateral 
jowls,  in  width  more  than  twice  the  length  of  the  bill.  The 
femoral  tract  showed  two  rows  of  feathers,  eight  flights  and 
five  coverts,  extending  at  right  angles  to  the  femur.  The 
inside  of  the  mouth  was  bright  lemon  yellow,  with  a  milk- 
white  border.  The  nestling  uttered  a  weak  but  penetrating- 
squeak. 

The  region  around  the  eye  in  the  adult  was  bare,  swol- 
len and  pale  bluish-white,  becoming  quite  blue  above  the  ear, 
where  it  merged  with  the  brown  feathers.  The  mandibles 
were  black,  paler  at  the  tips;  the  legs  and  feet  were  pale 
pinkish  white. 

Middle  toe 
Weight  Length       Wing     Tail        Bill     Tarsus     &  claw 

Adult  male 29      grams         150mm.  78          50  19          27          24 

Nestling 2.5  grams  44mm.  6.5       —  6  8.5         7 

QUADRILLE-BIRD 

Leucolepia  musica  musica  (Bodd.) 
i 

I  had  been  crouching,  well  hidden,  for  over  fifteen  min- 
utes watching  the  antics  of  a  flock  of  black-headed  cacique 
parrots  (Pionites  melanocepliala),  feeding  noisily  high  up 
in  the  top  of  a  great  jungle  tree  on  the  big  sunflower-shaped 
fruit  that  hung  there,  when,  from  a  little  beyond,  there  was 
a  great  shaking  of  branches  and  a  single  red  howler  came 
swinging  along,  first  with  a  scramble  out  onto  an  overhang- 
ing branch,  then  a  jump  through  mid-air,  a  hasty  grasp  at 
rapidly  passing  twigs  with  hand  or  tail,  another  scramble, 
a  short  run,  and  then  one  more  jump.  This  rapid  transit 
soon  brought  him  to  the  now  silent  parrot  tree  up  which  he 


FIG.  71.     NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  QUADRILLE -BIRD 


Photo  by  P.  O.  H. 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  233 

climbed  with  most  amazing  speed.  The  little  parrots  gazed 
silently  down  at  him  with  twisting  necks  and  with  longing- 
last  looks  at  the  luscious  meal  they  must  now  forsake,  they 
flew  screaming  away. 

I  placed  my  hand  against  a  small  sapling  to  steady 
myself,  while  watching  further  developments,  and  carelessly 
gave  it  a  little  shake.  The  flash  of  a  tiny  pair  of  wings  al- 
most in  my  face  was  the  result,  and  the  view  of  a  little  brown 
bird  as  it  rapidly  disappeared  into  the  undergrowth.  I 
looked  at  the  sapling  and  saw  a  small  bundle  of  leaves  rest- 
ing upon  a  small  branch  about  four  feet  from  the  ground. 
It  had  passed  unnoticed  in  the  excitement  of  watching  the 
parrots  and  the  monkey.  Then  from  the  bushes  came  a  few 
cheerful  notes  from  the  most  wonderful  musical  instrument 
of  all,  the  throat  of  the  quadrille-bird  and  I  felt  that  I  really 
had  discovered  something  worth  while.  . 

As  my  hiding  place  was  too  close  to  the  nest,  I  chose 
another  position  and  sat  down  to  await  what  would  happen. 
From  behind  a  friendly  screening  bush  the  nest  looked  like  a 
leafy  vase  held  by  a  twist  of  the  funnel-shaped  neck  over  a 
supporting  branch.  The  wily  little  bird  was  fully  two  hours 
in  making  up  its  mind  to  enter  its  curious  home,  but  it  could 
be  seen  dodging  in  and  out  among  the  bushes  close  by,  al- 
ways too  wary  to  take  any  chances  while  the  enemy  was 
about.  It  did  not  scold  as  they  usually  do,  but  every  few 
minutes  burst  into  song  as  if  thus  to  find  a  vent  for  its  in- 
creasing excitement.  Finally,  about  noon,  when  a  heavy 
shower  of  rain  commenced,  it  entered  to  protect  the  eggs 
from  a  wetting. 

The  nest  was  composed  almost  entirely  of  leaf  skele- 
tons bound  tightly  together  with  fine  fibres  and  a  few  blades 
of  coarse  grass.  The  entrance  passage  was  quite  large  and 
opened  upon  the  small  inner  cavity  near  the  top.  The  cavity 
in  which  the  eggs  lay,  was  lined  with  several  big  feathers 
of  the  large  Guiana  great  tinamou  and  the  Guiana  partridge. 


234         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

The  whole  structure  was  very  compact  and  neatly  put  to- 
gether, the  leaf  veins  giving  it  a  very  strange  appearance. 

The  two  fresh  eggs  were  pure  white  with  little  gloss. 
Their  dimensions  were  22  x  15.5  mm. 

The  nest  was  found  on  July  5,  at  the  height  of  the  great 
rainy  season.  I  think  it  probable  that  they  nest  twice  a  year 
as  several  newly  vacated  nests,  apparently  of  this  species, 
were  found  during  March. 

ORANGE-HEADED   MANAKIN 

Pipra  aureola  aureola  (Linn.) 

These  charming  little  birds  were  abundant,  and  often 
seen  in  the  jungle,  either  in  pairs  or  in  company  with  small 
flocks  of  other  birds.  But  their  life  history  as  noted  in  our 
records  was  as  fragmentary  as  the  brief  glimpses  we  had  of 
them.  Then  came  'a  series  of  lucky  birds'  nesting  days  and 
we  discovered  four  nests  of  the  orange-headed  manakins. 

The  first  was  close  to  an  animal  trail  in  heavy  reedy 
second  growth  about  a  mile  from  Kalacoon.  The  nest  was 
in  a  small,  slender-stemmed  bush,  only  three  feet  from  the 
ground,  in  the  fork  of  a  branch.  There  were  two  eggs,  and 
as  we  did  not  get  a  chance  to  secure  the  female  we  disturbed 
neither  eggs  nor  nest. 

Three  days  later  the  bird  left  as  we  approached.  Back- 
ing off  some  distance  we  squatted  and  waited  for  her  reap- 
pearance. In  five  minutes  she  returned,  settled  on  the  nest, 
caught  sight  of  us,  and  flew  up  scolding  harshly.  She  was 
uniformly  dark  olive-green,  with  lighter  throat,  dark  bill, 
and  bright  red  legs  and  feet.  At  this  moment,  without  warn- 
ing, a  full-grown  jaguar  rushed  us,  growling,  turning  aside 
when  about  eight  feet  away,  only  when  we  stood  up  and  he 
perceived  that  we  were  other  than  deer  or  whatever  jungle 
prey  he  had  evidently  expected.  After  the  excitement  had 
passed,  one  of  our  number  shot  a  bird  from  near  the  nest, 
only  to  find  that  he  had  killed  a  helmeted  flycatcher  by  mis- 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  235 

take.  Ultimately  the  rightful  owner  returned  and  was 
secured. 

One  egg  had  disappeared.  The  nest  was  vireo-like, 
cup-shaped,  suspended  from  the  forked  twigs.  It  was  not 
very  firm,  light  showing  through  it  everywhere.  The  mate- 
rial was  coarse  grasses  and  thin  rootlets.  Cobweb  was  used 
where  the  nest  was  in  contact  with  the  twigs,  and  several 
dead  leaves  were  loosely  attached  with  this  material  to  the 
outside  of  the  nest.  The  diameters  of  the  nest  were,  70  mm. 
outside,  and  50  mm.  inside;  the  depths,  50  mm.  outside,  and 
40  inside. 

The  egg  measured  21  by  15.5  mm.  The  ground  color 
was  dull  yellowish  white,  with  numerous  pale  brown  and  lilac 
markings,  mostly  linear,  running  lengthways,  and  more  nu- 
merous around  the  larger  end. 

Two  days  later,  on  March  10,  I  sat  down  in  a  small 
glade  near  the  same  animal  trail.  It  was  early  morning  and 
the  sun  was  not  near  its  full  strength.  I  listened  to  the  chirps 
of  birds  drinking  at  a  black  jungle  creek  near  by,  and 
watched  a  hummingbird  pick  cobweb  in  the  intervals  of  vio- 
lent battle  with  another  species.  Then  a  female  manakin 
whirred  past  and  I  followed  her  as  she  fed  on  small  berries 
near  the  tops  of  some  saplings.  After  fifteen  minutes  of 
this  fitful  occupation  she  swooped  downward,  straight  to  a 
tiny  nest  which  to  this  moment  had  been  invisible  to  me. 
Here,  suspended  from  a  slender  fork  just  over  a  pool  of 
black  water  she  brooded  two  eggs. 

A  week  later  the  young  birds  hatched,  and  on  March 
20,  I  photographed  and  examined  the  three-days-old  young. 
One  of  them,  a  female,  was  reddish  flesh  color,  with  yellow 
gape  and  yellowish  brown  legs  and  feet.  The  eyes  and  the 
upper  surface  of  the  wings  were  dark  leaden. 

The  down  was  sparse,  long  and  whitish  grey  in  color; 
there  was  none  on  the  hind  leg,  but  a  line  of  six,  strong  feath- 
er sheaths  with  long  down  attached  along  the  outer  aspect  of 


236         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


I'holo  by  P.  G.  II. 
FIG.  72.    NEST  AND  EGG  OF  ORANGE-HEADED  MANAKIN 

the  side  of  the  body,  with  traces  of  at  least  three  covert 
sheaths.  These  all  lay  along  the  femur. 

Ten  primaries  were  apparent,  looking  like  small,  nearly 
straight  claws,  giving  to  the  posterior  side  of  the  forewing 
a  saw-like  appearance.  The  outer  four  feathers  were  some- 
what larger  and  perfectly  straight;  the  succeeding  six  were 
quite  distinct,  being  curved  forward.  Only  a  single  claw- 
like  feather  tip  appeared  on  the  thumb. 

In  the  crop  of  the  nestling  were  two  kinds  of  small, 
fleshy  seeds,  two-inch  worms  and  a  small,  brilliant  green 
beetle. 

A  week  later,  on  March  27, 1  examined  the  second  nest- 
ling, a  male.  It  sat  silently  crouched  far  down  in  the  nest 
until  disturbed  when  it  uttered  a  shrill  chirp.  The  flight 
feathers  were  almost  full  grown,  but  quite  unbroken  from 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  237 

their  sheaths.  Even  a  kingfisher  does  not  exhibit  such  long 
continued  sheathing.  In  the  crop  was  a  single,  sharp-stud- 
ded, flattened,  circular  seed  with  the  flesh  all  dissolved  away. 

Middle  toe 
Length        Bill  Wing  Tail  Tarsus         and  claw 

3    day    nestling 37  59  10  7 

Adult     .  110  10.5  5-2.5  32  20  15 


SEED  EATERS 

Whenever  one  walked  through  the  cultivated  fields  near 
Georgetown  or  through  any  of  the  clearings  near  the  coast 
of  Guiana,  one  was  invariably  surprised  at  the  great  number 
of  little  finches  that  would  start  up  at  his  approach.  They 
were  present  in  endless  numbers  wherever  the  weeds  grew 
rank  and  the  crabgrass  went  to  seed,  and  that  was  nearly 
everywhere.  Perhaps  the  two  most  common  were  the  little 
brown-breasted  pygmy  grosbeak  (Oryzoborus  angolensis 
brevirostris) ,  or  twa-twa  slave — locally  named  from  its  habit 
of  accompanying  its  elder  brother,  the  twa-twa  (O.  crassi- 
rostris),  and  the  tiny  chestnut-bellied  seedeater  (Sporophila 
castaneivent ris ) .  They  were  usually  seen  in  large  flocks. 

Familiarity  breeds  contempt.  There  could  be  no  truer 
saying  than  where  these  little  finches  were  concerned.  In 
spite  of  diligent  search  through  all  the  few  reports  and  ex- 
cerpts on  the  subject,  no  description  of  the  home  or  eggs 
of  these  birds  could  be  found,  and  yet,  in  April  and  May, 
their  nests  were  every  where. 

We  commenced  finding  nests  of  the  twa-twa  slave  about 
the  middle  of  March.  The  number  gradually  increased  until 
in  May  one  could  scarcely  walk  fifty  feet  through  a  clearing 
without  seeing  one.  In  June,  the  number  rapidly  decreased 
and  in  July,  we  saw  none. 

The  birds  usually  chose  a  low  bush  or  stiff  weed-stem 
with  a  fork  strong  enough  to  bear  the  light  weight  of  their 
tiny  cup,  though  one  nest  was  found  eight  feet  from  the 
ground  on  the  low  branch  of  a  mango  tree.  The  whole 
structure  was  not  more  than  10  cm.  across  and  contained  a 


by  p.  a.  n. 
FIG.  73.    NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  BROWN -BREASTED  PYGMY  GROSBEAK 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  239 

deep  cup  about  6  cm.  in  diameter  by  5  cm.  deep.  The 
material  used  was  surprisingly  uniform  in  character,  and 
all  the  finches  in  one  locality  seemed  to  utilize  only  the  one 
kind.  It  consisted  of  fine  weed  stems  rather  loosely  woven 
together  so  that  light  could  be  seen  through  the  crevices. 
No  other  interior  lining  was  used. 

The  number  of  eggs  varied  from  two  to  three,  one  num- 
ber being  as  common  as  the  other.  Their  ground  color  was 
pale  bluish  green,  thickly  covered  with  lilac  and  brown 
blotches,  interspersed  here  and  there  with  spots  and  streaks 
of  black.  The  shell  was  very  thin  and  the  eggs  varied  greatly 
in  size  and  shape,  some  being  long  and  others  almost  round. 
The  average  dimensions  were  17.5  x  13.5  mm. 

The  little  chestnut-bellied  seedeater  (Sporophila  cas- 
taneiventris) ,  built  a  larger  nest  and  was  not  so  particular 
about  the  material  used.  It  invariably  selected  a  low  bush 
so  that  the  sitting  bird  was  never  more  than  eighteen  inches 
from  the  ground.  The  nest  was  perhaps  a  little  better  built, 
for  the  walls  were  thicker  and  there  was  a  slight  lining  of 
finer  grass  on  the  inside.  Sometimes  they  decorated  the 
nest.  The  top  of  one  found  in  Georgetown  in  February  was 
covered  with  white  downy  cotton  obtained  from  the  pods 
of  a  weed  growing  nearby.  It  gave  the  nest  the  appearance 
of  a  white  cotton  ring  hanging  in  the  bush. 

They  laid  from  two  to  three  whitish  eggs,  thickly  spot- 
ted with  brown  and  lilac,  and  more  or  less  covered  with  fine, 
irregular  lines  of  black. 

A  third  and  rarer  finch,  and  one  whose  nest  and  eggs 
has  not  been  described,  is  the  black-headed  seedeater,  (Spo- 
rophila bouvronides) .  They  were  more  rare  at  Kalacoon  than 
the  others,  but  scarcely  a  day  passed  that  we  did  not  see  one 
in  the  clearing  about  the  house.  Finally,  about  the  middle 
of  June,  a  pair  built  a  nest  on  the  frond  of  a  young  royal 
palm,  a  few  yards  from  the  house  and  about  six  feet  from 
the  ground.  It  was  similar  to  that  of  O.  brevirostris,  slightly 
larger  and  not  so  deep.  Two  eggs  were  laid. 


Photo  by  /' 
FIG.  74.     NEST  AND  EGGS  OF  CHESTNUT-BELLIED  SEEDEATER 


ORNITHOLOGICAL   DISCOVERIES  241 

BLUE  HONEY-CREEPER 

Cyancrpcs  cyaneus  cyaneus   (Linn.) 

This  graceful  creeper  fulfills  all  the  ideals  of  one's 
thoughts  of  tropical  birds.  We  know  it  chiefly  as  an  inhabi- 
tant of  the  tree-tops  and  seen  against  the  bright  sky  it  showed 
only  as  a  slender,  thin-billed,  little  black  bird.  But  when 
we  saw  it  against  foliage,  its  plumage  blazed  out  in  all  its 
brilliance.  With  a  body  scarcely  four  inches  long  it  glowed 
a  brilliant  purple  blue,  with  feet  of  scarlet,  crown  of  pale 
blue,  back  and  wings  of  blackest  jet,  the  latter  splashed  with- 
in by  pigment  of  brightest  gold. 

We  watched  them  in  the  jungle — the  brilliant  cock  birds 
and  the  dull-striped  hens  of  olive  green.  In  early  July,  they 
came  in  numbers  with  the  hummingbird  hosts  to  the  honey- 
laden  blossoms  of  the  cashew  trees.  But  their  life  other- 
wise remained  a  mystery  until  we  found  a  nest  on  the  seven- 
teenth day  of  July.  And  both  nest  and  eggs  sustained  the 
admiration  which  we  felt  for  the  adult  blue  honey-creepers. 

The  nest  was  a  fairy  network  suspended  over  the  water, 
as  thin  and  evanescent  as  the  shadow  of  an  oriole's  purse,  and 
the  eggs  were  the  strangest  of  all  eggs  in  the  world — they 
were  black.  The  home  of  the  honey-creepers  was  delicately 
caught  in  the  base  of  a  great  heart-leaf  of  a  water  arum,  the 
mucka-mucka,  beloved  of  hoatzins,  and  it  swung  in  every 
breath  of  air  barely  four  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  river's 
edge.  It  was  exceedingly  thin-walled,  every  detail  of  the 
eggs  and  the  setting  bird  being  plainly  visible.  And  yet  it 
was  most  durable  and  quite  impossible  to  tear  or  even  appre- 
ciably alter  in  shape,  for  it  was  composed  of  fine,  but  very 
strong  thread-like  rootlets,  all  of  a  uniform  dark  brown  or 
black  color.  The  small  round  opening  was  at  the  top,  ob- 
liquely facing  one  side.  The  nest  itself  was  17  cm.  high, 
and  8  cm.  across,  while  the  nest  hollow  within  measured  4  cm. 
in  diameter  by  7  cm.  deep. 

There  were  two  eggs,  astonishingly  black  or  purple- 


242         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  l>y  P.  Q.  II. 


FIG.  75.     NEST  OF  BLUE  HONEY-CREEPER 


black.  Closer  examination  showed  faint  traces  of  the  pale 
lavender  ground  color,  distinctly  revealed  at  the  small  end, 
and  in  irregular  streaks  and  minute  interstices  as  far  as  the 
middle  of  the  shell.  They  measured  20.5  x  14  and  20  x  14 
mm.,  and  were  quite  fresh. 


ORNITHOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES  243 

This  is  the  sum  of  our  knowledge  of  the  blue  honey- 
creeper,  whose  appearance  is  such  a  delight  to  the  eye,  and 
whose  habits  but  whet  the  desire  to  know  more  of  the  inti- 
macies of  life  of  such  strange,  graceful  little  beings. 

MORICHE  ORIOLE 

Icterus  chrysocephalus  (Linn.) 

One  of  the  first  birds  to  greet  us  at  Kalacoon  was  the 
moriche  oriole.  These  birds  were  unusual  in  their  charm, 
for  they  were  satisfying  both  to  the  eye  and  ear.  From 
dawn  until  the  passing  of  the  swift  tropical  twilight  their 
black  forms,  crowned  and  shouldered  and  booted  with  gold, 
looped  palm  with  palm,  or  glanced  in  the  sunlight  as  they 
sped  away  to  the  denser  secondgrowth  in  search  of  insect 
food.  And  hardly  ever  did  they  perch  without  giving  utter- 
ance to  the  silvery  thread  of  warbling  notes  which,  while  indi- 
vidual and  distinctive,  yet  with  no  less  certainty  declared 
their  oriole  relationship. 

Late  in  February,  upon  our  arrival  at  Kalacoon,  we 
discovered  no  less  than  five  nests  of  this  oriole  in  the  single 
royal  palm  in  the  compound  in  front  of  the  house.  We  soon 
found  that  only  one  pair  of  orioles  occupied  the  tree,  and 
each  day  it  became  more  and  more  probable  that  this  pair 
was  the  architect  of  all  five  nests. 

Two  of  the  nests  were  complete  and  apparently  several 
months  old.  Three  were  unfinished  and  upon  two  of  these 
we  saw  the  birds  working  intermittently.  One  of  these  nests 
contained  two  eggs,  one  of  which  we  took  as  it  had  apparent- 
ly never  been  described. 

The  nests  were  placed  on  the  under  side  between  the 
leaflets  of  one  side  of  the  frond,  about  two  feet  from  the  tip. 
They  were  made  entirely  of  shreds  of  the  leaves  themselves, 
which  the  birds  tore  from  a  particular  frond,  a  frond  which 
through  their  industry  had  become  almost  denuded.  The 
green  fibre  was  woven  with  the  bill  and  the  process  was  not 


Phot ii  1>y  P.  G.  H. 


FIG.  76.    NEST  OF  MORICHE  ORIOLE 


ORNITHOLOGICAL   DISCOVERIES  245 

a  simple  one.  The  nest  was  a  fairly  deep  cup,  held  in  place 
by  the  rim  and  sides  being  woven  into-  several  separate  leaf- 
lets. The  leaves  were  split  with  the  bill,  and  the  shreds  of 
fibre  then  woven  in  and  out  until  the  leaf  was  safely  bound 
to  the  side  of  the  nest.  In  the  case  of  two  of  the  nests  the 
sewing  was  very  finely  done,  not  unlike  the  work  of  the  tailor 
bird  of  India.  The  divided  row  of  leaflets  formed  a  per- 
fectly water-proof  cover.  The  entrance  to  the  nest  was  in- 
variably at  the  end  toward  the  trunk  of  the  palm.  Here  a 
pair  of  leaflets  was  held  slightly  apart  by  a  thick  mass  of 
woven  fibres,  a  thick  frame,  which  also  acted  as  a  sort  of 
perch  or  landing  stage  for  the  old  birds  in  entering  or  leaving 
the  nest.  The  nests  were  of  coarse  materials  outside,  but 
lined  with  very  fine,  soft  shreds. 

The  nest  with  the  two  eggs  when  completed,  measured, 
outside,  12  cm.  in  length,  8.2  cm.  in  diameter  and  6.5  in 
depth.  Inside  it  was  8.5  cm.  in  length,  5.7  cm.  in  diameter 
and  5  cm.  in  depth. 

The  egg  was  rather  sharply  pointed  and  measured  25 
x  18  mm.  Its  ground  color  was  creamy  white,  marked  with 
spots  and  small  blotches  of  various  shades  of  dark  brown, 
umber  and  sepia.  These  were  very  sparse  about  the  small 
end  and  the  center,  but  abundant  at  the  large  end,  the  blotch- 
es forming  a  rough  wreath  about  it.  At  this  end,  too,  there 
was  a  hint,  in  the  faintest  markings,  of  the  scrawl-like  figures 
so  characteristic  of  the  eggs  of  many  orioles. 

On  March  23,  the  birds  began  building  still  another 
nest,  and  laid  in  it  before  it  was  quite  completed.  On  April 
28,  a  young  moriche  hatched,  and  for  the  next  two  weeks 
both  parents  kept  busy  feeding  the  young  bird  with  insects. 
Most  of  these  they  secured  at  the  blossoming  cashew  tree. 
While  the  birds  were  incubating  they  were  rather  silent, 
singing  but  seldom,  and  quite  wary,  slipping  away  quietly 
whenever  we  appeared.  During  the  weeks  of  feeding,  how- 
ever, the  constant  labor  was  lightened  with  frequent  singing, 


246         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

and  both  birds  became  exceedingly  tame,  quite  regardless 
of  our  near  presence. 

On  May  15,  the  young  moriche  left  the  nest  and  with 
the  two  parents  disappeared.  No  sign  of  them  was  seen 
until  a  month  had  passed,  when  on  June  14,  all  three  re- 
turned. Within  a  day  or  two  the  old  birds  began  overhaul- 
ing one  of  the  half-finished  nests  and  soon  occupied  it. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

YOUNG  GREY-BACKED  TRUMPETERS 

The  grey-backed  trumpeter  (Psophia  crepitans),  was 
fairly  common  in  the  jungle  about  Kalacoon.  About  every 
second  trip  through  the  woods  these  birds  would  either  be 
seen  or  heard. 

I  have  scanned  ornithological  literature  and  have  gath- 
ered together  all  our  scanty  knowledge  concerning  these 
interesting  birds,  and  this  year  I  had  hoped  to  solve  the  mys- 
tery of  their  nests  and  eggs  and  young.  But  in  this  I  was 
only  partially  successful — the  nests  and  eggs  must  remain 
unknown  until  another  season,  and  my  monograph  of  these 
birds  will  consequently  be  delayed  until  then. 

From  Cozier,  a  reliable  boviander  bird  collector,  I  got 
the  following  data,  the  accuracy  of  which  time  alone  will 
prove.  Trumpeters,  or  warracabras,  as  they  are  known 
throughout  Guiana,  lay  two  white  eggs.  They  nest  in  small 
colonies,  one  nest  in  each  adjoining  tree,  five  or  six  nests  in 
each  group.  The  female  takes  the  young  by  the  wings  or  back 
and  carries  them  down  to  the  ground.  Cozier  said  he  had 
seen  this  accomplished.  The  nesting  season  lasts  until  June, 
eggs  being  found  as  late  as  that  month.  The  nest  is  twelve 
to  fifteen  feet  up,  well  built  of  twigs  and  leaves,  deeply  hol- 
lowed so  that  the  bird  sits  in  it.  Both  parents  share  the  du- 
ties of  incubation,  and  they  will  desert  neither  eggs  nor 
young  even  after  being  disturbed  many  times. 

So  much  for  second  hand  knowledge.  The  facts  I  accu- 
mulated at  first  hand  had  to  do  only  with  the  adults  and 
young  birds. 

Whenever  the  old  birds  were  alarmed,  they  would  run 
a  short  distance  and  then  take  refuge  on  low  branches, 
mounting  thence  by  easy  stages  until  they  were  quite  near 


248         TROPICAL   WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  l)v  P.  O.  11. 
FIG.  78.    YOUNG  TRUMPETERS  FOUR  DAYS  OLD 

the  tree-tops.  There  they  would  sit  and  cackle  to  one  an- 
other. If  suddenly  flushed  and  terrified  they  flew  at  once, 
slanting  slowly  downward  as  their  power  of  flight  weakened, 
and  then  ran  rapidly  until  a  good  distance  away.  If  ap- 
proached quietly  they  could  be  shot  on  their  perches,  and 
one  shot  seldom  alarmed  the  rest. 

Our  Indian  hunter,  in  four  months'  desultory  shooting, 
brought  in  twenty  trumpeters  from  a  comparatively  restrict- 
ed area.  And  yet  at  the  end  of  our  stay,  there  seemed  no 
diminution  in  the  number  of  families  or  flocks  which  we  ob- 
served from  day  to  day. 

The  sexes  of  these  trumpeters  showed  a  preponderance 
of  females  of  about  two  to  one.  The  food  of  these  birds  was 
chiefly  vegetable  and  exceedingly  varied.  For  instance,  the 
crop  of  one  bird  contained  a  thorax  of  a  large,  green  beetle, 


YOUNG  TRUMPETERS  249 

and  fragments  of  several  small  beetles  and  orange  ants,  be- 
sides numerous  red  seeds,  skins  of  berries  and  several  chest- 
nut-shaped, hard,  greenish  seeds.  This  was  typical  of  many 
birds  examined,  the  proportion  of  vegetable  to  animal  mat- 
ter being  about  eighty  to  twenty  per  cent. 

We  secured  three  young  birds  in  the  downy  stage.  One 
of  these  was  about  a  week  old,  and  was  one  of  four  of  equal 
age,  which  were  in  company  with  three  old  birds,  a  male  and 
two  females. 

On  April  21,  we  secured  two  very  young  trumpeters 
about  four  days  old  (Fig.  78).  These  were  associated 
with  a  flock  of  ten  or  twelve  adults  and  eight  or  ten  nestling 
birds,  cheeping  on  the  ground  in  all  directions. 

The  downy  trumpeter  had  the  characteristic  shake  of 
the  head  and  nervous  wing-flapping  of  the  adults.  Its  note 
was  a  sharp  peep  like  that  of  a  chick,  until  called  or  stroked 
when  it  changed  to  a  plaintive,  sibilant  twe,  twe,  twe,  twe,  or 
when  more  excited,  chuwee!  chuwee!  This  reminded  one  of 
the  whistling  squeak  emitted  by  a  rubber  doll. 

The  chicks  roosted  at  night  on  the  highest  perch,  and 
during  the  day  preferred  always  the  darkness  of  the  coop 
to  the  bright  light  outside  where  the  young  curassows  and 
guans  spent  their  time. 

When  first  placed  with  these  other  young  birds,  the 
downy  trumpeter  became  quite  excited,  flicked  its  wings  and 
bowed,  quite  like  the  old  birds  of  its  own  species.  It  could 
not  as  yet  boom,  but  when  greatly  agitated,  as  when  caught 
in  the  hand,  it  uttered  the  prolonged  cackle  of  the  adults, 
together  with  the  high,  shrill  note. 

It  invariably  perched  on  one  foot,  and  this  rested  chiefly 
>n  the  middle  toe,  with  the  big  basal  pad  behind  the  perch, 
central  toe  curled  around  it,  and  the  other  two  spread 
iterally  along  the  top.  The  hind  toe  was  quite  useless  in 
>sting,  being  raised  high  above  the  perch. 

The  pattern  of  the  young  trumpeter  was  very  complex 
id  wholly  unlike  that  of  any  other  downy  chick  with  which 


250         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 
FIG.  79.    YOUNG  TRUMPETER  TWO  MONTHS  OLD 

I  am  familiar.  (Fig.  77).  In  a  week-old  chick  the  lores, 
sides  of  the  crown,  face,  chin  and  throat  were  dark  seal 
brown.  The  eartuft  and  two  sprouting  zones  of  breast  feath- 
ers, jet  black.  Entire  sides  of  neck  and  foreneck  dark  smoky 
brown.  Belly,  abdomen  and  inner  thighs  buffy  white. 


YOUNG  TRUMPETERS  251 

A  broad  line  down  the  center  of  the  crown,  splitting 
apart  on  the  hind  crown  and  nape,  and  coalescing  again  on 
the  hind  neck,  was  pale  cinnamon.  A  complex  series  of  cres- 
cents on  the  upper  and  mid-back,  two  latero-dorsal  lines  ex- 
tending quite  to  the  tail,  and  an  elaborate  pattern  on  the 
sides  of  the  body  and  the  outer  thighs  were  cinnamon,  the 
thigh  markings  paler,  more  buffy. 

The  background  of  the  lower  neck  and  upper  back  was 
black.  The  background  of  all  the  remainder  of  the  plumage 
— two  lateral  crown  lines  as  far  back  as  the  lower  neck,  the 
mid  and  lower  back,  rump,  sides  and  outer  thighs — all  were 
cold,  grizzled  grey,  varying  from  cinereous  to  plumbeous. 

The  wing  feathers,  which  were  sprouting  strongly,  were 
almost  concealed  by  the  long,  fluffy  cinnamon  down.  This 
down  was  very  evenly  distributed  on  the  sprouting  barbs, 
each  stem  of  down  usually  resting  firmly  on  an  individual 
barb.  Ten  primaries  were  sprouting,  slightly  longer  than 
the  secondaries.  All  ten  were  black.  The  6th  was  the  long- 
est, measuring  61.5  mm.  Sixteen  secondary  flights  had 
sprouted,  the  outer  five  unusually  strong  and  black  in  color. 
The  6th  was  slightly  tinged  with  grey,  while  the  succeeding 
ten  were  wholly  grey  and  diminished  rapidly  in  size,  from 
43.5  to  11  mm. 

The  iris  was  hazel  brown.  The  bill  black  with  restricted 
areas  of  ivory  white  along  the  culmen,  lower  edge  of  upper 
and  tip  of  lower  mandible.  Inside  of  mouth,  pale  flesh,  ex- 
cept for  posterior  palate  which  was  black.  Legs  and  feet 
chaetura  drab,  paler  on  larger  scales,  darker  on  soles. 

When  the  chick  was  two  months  old  the  down  still  per- 
sisted on  the  head,  neck  and  posterior  dorsal  areas. 

As  typical  of  an  adult  in  full  molt,  I  present  the  details 
of  wings  and  tail  of  a  bird  shot  on  July  20. 

The  three  outer  primaries  were  old. 

4th  nearly  full-grown. 

5th  a  quarter  grown  sheath. 

All  the  remaining  primaries  new. 


252         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

Secondaries  all  new,  full-grown,  except  from  the  8th 
inward  which  were  still  growing. 

RECTRICES 

Left     5432112345     Right 
Old         New      New     New      New       New       New       Old       New        Old 

full-    sheath   full-       1-3          1-3         full-  full- 

grown  grown  grown  grown  grown  grown 


4. 

Formula  of  tail  molt:  j>  j 3 5 


COMPARATIVE    MEASUREMENTS 

Middle 
Weight         Length      Bill    Wing      Tail     Tarsus      Toe  and  Claw 

5   day   chick 78  grams  176  14          22          —          32.5  32.5 

60   day   chick 1  Ib.  266          22         107  15  52  46 

Adult    ...  2  Ibs.  540          40        270         115         122  95 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  WAYS  OF  TINAMOU 

Some  day  an  entire  volume  will  be  written  about  these 
birds  and  every  word  of  it  will  be  fascinating  reading.  For 
they  are  surcharged  with  exciting  and  unexpected  habits  and 
ways  of  life.  Their  appearance  and  voice,  roosting,  flight, 
nesting  and  courtship — all  are  unexpected,  often  inexplic- 
able, always  thoroughly  absorbing.  They  have  somewhat 
the  appearance  of  bob-tailed  partridges  and  in  the  tropical 
jungles  almost  usurp  the  place  of  the  quail,  partridges  and 
grouse  of  our  northern  forests.  For  these  latter  birds  are 
of  true  northern  origin  and  the  scattering  of  forms  which 
have  made  their  way  thus  far  to  the  south  are  only  hardy 
pioneers,  of  small  size  and  laying  but  few  eggs,  barely  hold- 
ing their  own  among  the  intensive  dangers  of  this  region. 

The  tinamou  are  the  dominant  ground  birds  of  the 
Guiana  jungles.  They  are  so  specialized  for  a  terrestrial 
life  that  they  have  unshipped  their  feathery  rudder — their 
tail-feathers  have  softened,  shortened  and  merged  with  the 
rest  of  the  body  plumage.  Their  flight  is  thus  direct,  and 
is  seldom  sustained  over  fifty  yards. 

By  squatting  at  the  sign  of  danger  they  unconsciously 
offer  conclusive  proof  of  the  concealing  character  of  their 
garb  of  browns  and  greys.  At  a  nearer  approach  they  boom 
up  into  the  dim  air  of  the  mid- jungle,  hurling  themselves 
off  through  the  trees  with  an  astounding  roar  of  wings',  and 
then  scaling  on  a  long,  slowly  descending  slant,  to  the 
ground  far  beyond  view. 

In  physical  make-up  they  are  dual  or  triple  personali- 
ties, for  they  are  fowls  or  pheasant-like  from  some  angles 
and  quite  ostrich-like  from  others.  To  scientists,  tinamou 
are  as  yet  the  most  casual  of  acquaintances.  We  know  only 


254         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  by  W.  B. 
FIG.  80.    ROUNDED  WING  AND  DEGENERATE  TAIL  OF  TINAMOU 

the  most  superficial  facts  concerning  them  and  their  lives 
from  birth  to  death. 

I  shall  point  this  chapter  with  one  of  these  facts,  one 
concerning  a  mere  physical  character,  small  in  itself,  but 
which  I  shall  try  to  make  significant.  For  I  shall  consider 
it  as  typifying  the  future  work  which  I  wish  to  carry  on  at 
the  Research  Station,  the  sort  of  work  which  can  only  be 
done  in  the  field,  and  yet  which  is  initiated  and  controlled  by 
the  knowledge  derived  from  books  and  museums.  And  I 
shall  take  it  up  in  detail  as  an  illustration  of  one  of  the  many 


WAYS  OF  TINAMOU  255 

methods  of  research,  in  part  deliberately  planned  a  priori, 
in  part  seeming  like  luck. 

There  are  eight  species  of  tinamou  in  British  Guiana, 
three  of  which  are  found  in  the  vicinity  of  Bartica.  These 
are  divided  into  two  genera,  Tinamus  and  Crypturus.  Ety- 
mologically,  there  is  neither  logic  nor  reason  in  these  names  as 
terms  of  differentiation;  both  groups  are  tinamou  and  both 
deserve  the  name  of  "hidden-tail."  These  genera  are  recog- 
nized throughout  the  world,  and  whenever  any  specimens  of 
these  particular  birds  are  received  in  museums  they  are  at 
once  classified  as  one  or  the  other.  The  actual  character  of 
differentiation  is  the  scaly  part  of  the  leg  or  tarsus.  In  Tina- 
mus, the  rear  part  of  the  leg  is  exceedingly  rough,  the  edges 
of  the  scales  projecting  and  forming  a  series  of  rugged  cor- 
rugations. In  Crypturus,  the  hinder  aspect  of  the  tarsus  is 
quite  smooth.  These  two  distinctions  have  been  recognized 
for  many  years — Tinamus  for  more  than  one  hundred  and 
thirty,  and  Crypturus  for  a  hundred  and  six  years,  and  dur- 
ing all  this  time  ornithologists  have  accepted  this  character 
without  thought  or  question.  The  needs  of  taxonomy  having 
been  satisfied,  there  was  no  danger  of  confusion  even  if  a 
pile  of  skins  of  the  two  groups  were  thoroughly  mixed  up. 
So  the  birds  have  been  labelled  and  catalogued  and  put  away 
in  their  respective  cases  and  the  incident — the  casual,  nom- 
inal affair  between  Hermann  and  Illiger  versus  Tinamus 
and  Crypturus — was  considered  closed. 

But  this  is  unworthy  of  the  very  name  of  science  and  or- 
nithology. It  is  as  if  we  should  meet  a  person  with  an  infi- 

lite  capacity  for  life-long  friendship  and  should  wilfully 
turn  away  after  merely  hearing  his  name. 

Soon  after  the  first  tinamou  sprang  up  from  under  my 
feet  in  the  jungle,  or  when  Nupee,  the  Indian  hunter, 
brought  me  the  first  of  the  many  whose  flesh  were  to  form 
so  excellent  a  part  of  our  food,  the  old,  old  question  forced 
itself  upon  me,  the  question  from  which  I  can  never  hope 

lor  desire,  to  escape;  the  question  which  makes  all  science 


256         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


I'hotn  hii  W.  Ii. 
FIG.  81.     ROUGH  TARSUS  OF  TINAMUS 


worth  while;  the  question,  Why?  The  names  Tinamus  and 
Crypturus,  became  naught  but  names.  All  significance  fell 
from  them,  and  running  my  fingers  over  the  rough  tarsus 
of  one  bird  and  the  smooth,  shining  scales  of  another,  I  asked 
again  and  again,  "Why?" 

I  noticed  that  in  every  instance  the  rough-backed  tarsus 
was  coated  with  dirt.  Often  the  interstices  were  completely 
choked  with  fine  mud  and  debris  or  with  fibrous  mold.  The 
legs  of  the  smaller  birds  were  as  clean  as  they  were  smooth. 
With  only  a  half-framed  theory  in  mind  I  thoroughly  washed 
off  the  dirt  from  the  tarsi  of  several  birds  and  sprinkled  it 
on  a  pot  of  earth,  which  previously  I  had  thoroughly  baked. 
In  the  course  of  the  following  weeks  I  reared  an  interesting 
little  assortment  of  mosses  and  small  arboreal  plants,  but 
which,  after  all,  formed  only  circumstantial  evidence. 

Nupee,  the  Akawai  hunter,  was  an  excellent  observer 
and,  as  I  had  tested  on  a  number  of  occasions,  a  truthful 
reporter  of  what  he  observed.  But  to  make  more  certain 
of  the  result,  I  put  my  questions  indirectly  and  negatively, 
so  that  to  tell  the  truth  he  would  have  to  go  against  my 
apparent  assumption.  All  but  strictly  honest  natives  and 
savages  will  readily  fall  into  this  little  snare,  and  will  offer 


WAYS  OF  TINAMOU  257 


Photo  by  P.  G.  11. 
FIG.  82.     SMOOTH  TARSUS  OF  CRYPTURUS 

sacrifice  to  the  favor  of  "Marster"  or  "Sahib"  or  "Tuan," 
rather  than  to  the  most  elusive  goddess  of  all  hierarchy. 

To  Nupee,  Tinamus,  or  the  great  tinamou,  was  known 
as  maru;  the  two  Crypturus,  the  pileated  and  variegated 
tinamou,  were  respectively  orri-orri  and  sulima. 

Our  conversation  was  brief  and  to  the  point,  running 
somewhat  as  follows : 

"Nupee,  you  know  orri-orri?" 

"Yes,  marster." 

"He  sleep  in  tree?" 

"No,  orri-orri  sleep  on  ground." 

"Does  sulima  sleep  in  tree?" 

"No,  sulima  sleep  on  ground." 

"You  know  maru?" 

"Yes." 

"Then  maru  sleep  on  ground,  too?" 

"No,  maru  sleep  in  tree." 
Then,  in  the  course  of  the  next  few  days: 

"Nupee,  you  say  maru  and  sulima  sleep  on  ground?" 

"No,  maru  always  sleep  in  tree,  ever'  night." 

This  was  pretty  good  for  exhibit  B  of  proof.  But  such 
a  habit  was  so  startling,  so  unlike  what  we  should  expect  of 
birds  extremely  specialized  for  terrestrial  life,  that  I  could 
not  be  wholly  convinced. 


258         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

Late  one  afternoon  I  was  some  distance  from  Kalacoon 
when  a  sudden  downpour  of  rain  came  on.  I  had  many  snug- 
retreats  and  shelters  scattered  through  the  jungle  of  which 
I  made  use  whenever  I  was  caught  with  a  camera  in  one 
of  the  occasional  afternoon  showers.  I  ran  at  once  to  a  huge 
hollow  tree,  whose  splayed  buttresses  arched  far  outward, 
and  whose  great  hollow  trunk  vibrated  alternately  day  and 
night  with  the  humming  wings  of  swifts  and  the  softer  swish 
of  bats.  During  the  course  of  the  rain  I  found  many  things 
to  watch,  for  the  life  of  the  jungle  is  often  most  interesting 
at  unusual  moments.  The  incident  which  dwarfed  all  others, 
however,  was  a  great  tinamou,  a  Tinamus,  a  maru,  which 
stepped  past  with  quick,  dainty  strides  and  half  leaped,  half 
fluttered  awkwardly  up  to  the  base  of  a  leaning  tree,  and  with 
wildly  balancing  wings,  made  its  way  forty  or  fifty  feet  still 
higher  to  a  large  horizontal  branch.  Here  without  hesita- 
tion, backed  close  against  the  trunk,  the  bird  squatted,  and 
facing  lengthways  of  the  branch,  rested  on  its  tarsi,  which 
were  applied  closely  to  the  rough,  mossy  bark. 

The  third  and  conclusive  phase  of  the  quest  of  the 
"Why?"  had  come.  Now,  indeed,  we  could  return  to  Tina- 
mus and  to  Crypturus,  and  resurrect  them  from  the  tomb  of 
meaningless  terms,  of  hollow  names,  of  inarticulate  raison  d' 
etre.  Our  answer  to  the  "Why?"  has  made  them  significant, 
surcharged  with  a  reality  of  difference,  and  has  aroused  a 
desire  to  carry  the  interrogation  farther,  striving  to  'learn 
the  reason  for  the  tree  roost. 

GUIANA    GREAT    TINAMOU 

Tinamus  major  (Gmelin) 

This  big,  olive  greenish  tinamou  was  the  most  abundant 
of  the  three  Bartica  species,  and  it  was  seldom  that  one  took 
a  walk  in  the  jungle  without  observing  or  flushing  several 
birds.  They  were  equally  common  on  both  banks  of  the 
Mazaruni  and  up  the  Cuyuni.  The  early  morning  and  late 


WAYS  OF  TINAMOU  259 

afternoon  were  the  periods  of  their  greatest  activity  and  the 
times  when  their  calls  were  more  frequently  heard.  On 
cloudy  days,  however,  they  would  call  at  any  hour,  and  on 
moonlight  nights,  throughout  the  night.  They  were  essen- 
tially birds  of  the  jungle  and  never  left  the  deep  woods  to 
come  into  the  secondgrowth.  Like  all  tinamou  they  were 
solitary  birds,  and  I  never  saw  even  a  pair  together,  although 
occasionally  several  would  be  temporarily  drawn  together 
by  the  abundance  of  fallen  fruit  beneath  some  great  jungle 
tree. 

When  feeding,  they  would  squat  at  the  first  hint  of 
danger,  but  at  the  second  alarm,  if  the  source  of  danger  ap- 
proached gradually,  they  would  bend  low  and  attempt  to 
sneak  quietly  away.  This  was  the  usual  view  one  got  of 
these  birds  if  he  was  picking  his  way  quietly  through  the 
jungle.  To  watch  them,  one  must  crouch  at  the  very  first 
hint  of  their  presence  and  have  patience  to  wait  for  a  half- 
hour  to  quiet  their  suspicions.  When  on  the  nest  they  did 
not  leave  until  discovery  seemed  inevitable,  when  they  burst 
up  with  a  disconcerting  whirr  of  wings,  almost  a  booming, 
which,  coming  unexpectedly  made  accurate  observation  very 
difficult. 

I  have  never  heard  a  cry  of  alarm  or  danger,  nor  any 
call  to  chicks  nor  content  note,  neither  have  I  seen  them  in 
the  act  of  uttering  their  trill.  This  call,  which  was  a  sum- 
mons to  the  mate  or  mates — for  this  species  is  polyandrous — 
was  a  true  trill,  steady  and  rolling,  sustained  on  the  same 
note  with  the  following  intervals: 


In  February  or  early  March  the  courtship  was  at  its 
height,  judging  from  the  loudness  and  persistency  of  the 
long,  drawn-out  calls.  About  the  second  or  third  week  in 
March  the  breeding  season  began,  and  in  mid- April,  it  was 
in  full  swing. 

The  nest  was  invariably  placed  at  the  base  of  a  tree, 


Photo  by  P.  (J.  It. 


FIG.  83.     NESTING  SITE  OF  GUIANA  GREAT  TINAMOU 


WAYS  OF  TINAMOU  261 

between  two  small  projecting  buttresses.  The  trees  selected 
were  small  and  the  nests  were  usually  on  the  side  away  from 
the  prevailing  heavy  rains.  One  such  nest  found  on  the  third 
of  April  was  close  to  the  base  of  a  young  mora  tree  in  light 
undergrowth.  The  six  eggs,  burnished,  spheroidal,  were 
lying  in  a  deep  depression  of  the  thick  layer  of  dead  leaves 
which  covered  the  whole  of  this  part  of  the  jungle  floor. 
Several  large  leaves  hung  directly  over  the  nest,  sheltering 
it  from  view  above.  We  found  it  by  accident,  while  we  were 
searching  for  the  nest  of  a  big  black-breasted  ant-thrush, 
which  persisted  in  wandering  aimlessly  about,  once  or  twice 
fairly  walking  over  the  tinamou's  nest.  This  was  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  graceful  of  the  ant-thrushes,  large  and 
partridge-like,  forever  pattering  with  dainty  steps  over  the 
leaves  and  dodging  under  hanging  vines.  Now  and  then 
she  uttered  a  shrill,  querulous  chatter,  and  between  times 
dipped  her  tail  sandpiper-like.  The  male  flew  almost  at  my 
first  movement  and  did  not  return.  The  female  walked 
about,  keeping  apparently  away  from  her  own  nest  and  ulti- 
mately blundered  into  and  flushed  the  tinamou. 

As  we  leaned  over  the  nest,  held  by  the  beauty  of  the 
great,  blue  spheres,  we  came  under  the  suspicion  of  a  world  of 
midgets.  First  came  a  pair  of  cinnamon  hummingbirds 
whose  nest  must  have  been  close  by,  for  they  bullied  every- 
thing in  sight.  Insect-like,  they  came  within  arm's-length 
of  my  face,  where  they  whirred,  and  hung  suspended,  and 
flicked  back  and  forth.  Then  they  had  a  mimic  battle  with 
one  another,  chirping  loudly,  and  this  outcry  brought  a  pair 
of  diminutive  flycatchers  to  the  scene,  and  two  equally  tiny 
ant-thrushes.  Like  most  small  birds,  all  were  absurdly  tame 
and  all  vented  their  wrath  upon  us  as  we  photographed  the 
tinamou  nest.  A  few  minutes  afterward,  several  yards 
away,  I  surprised  a  beautiful  ocelot  lying  on  a  log.  This 
was  down  a  deep  gully  close  to  tumbling  rapids.  The  cat 
hesitated  long  enough  to  mouth  a  silent  snarl,  then  noise- 
lessly sprang  back  into  the  jungle.  Last  of  all,  as  we  left 


WAYS  OF  TINAMOU  263 

the  glade  with  our  colorful  treasures,  an  equally  brilliant, 
blue  morpho  butterfly  flapped  slowly  past.  Such  were  some 
of  the  surroundings  of  this  tinamou  nest  of  early  April. 

There  seems  to  be  much  variation  in  the  number  of  eggs 
of  this  species.  Eight  is  not  uncommon,  but  the  sets  of  ten 
and  twelve  which  have  been  reported  are  very  unusual.  I 
found  several  instances  where  sets  of  four  and  six  were  being 
incubated.  The  shells  were  spheroidal,  highly  burnished,  as 
in  all  tinamou,  and  light  turquoise  blue  in  color.  The  aver- 
age measurement  was  57  x  47  mm. 

The  eye  of  this  tinamou  was  dark  hazel,  and  its  facial 
skin  leaden  blue.  The  legs  and  feet  were  a  peculiar  green- 
blue  grey  or  in  young  birds  a  clear  celandine  green ;  the  bill 
was  a  dark  bluish  horn,  with  the  lower  mandible  lighter.  An 
average  bird  showed  the  following  measurements:  bill,  34 
mm.;  wing,  247;  tail,  87;  middle  toe  and  claw,  41  mm. 

The  females  averaged  slightly  larger  than  the  males, 
the  extremes  being  420  and  477  mm.  The  sexes  were  equal 
in  weight,  from  1.5  to  2.75  Ibs.  The  food  was  wholly  vege- 
table, consisting  chiefly  of  seeds  swallowed  whole,  pink, 
green,  brown  or  yellow,  resembling  acorns  or  nuts  of  various 
shapes.  The  favorite  food  was  the  seed  of  the  monkey-pots 
(Lecythis) . 

When  the  skin  was  removed,  the  flesh  was  of  a  strange 
greenish-grey  color,  most  unhealthy  in  appearance,  but  deli- 
cate and  delicious  when  cooked. 

There  seemed  to  be  but  slight  difference  between  the 
sexes.  The  males  were,  as  a  rule,  more  rufous  and  less  olive 
than  the  females.  In  full-plumaged  males  the  forehead  and 
crown  were  blue-black  with  the  chestnut  nape  and  hind 
crown  sharply  set  off.  In  a  large  series  of  females  the  black- 
ened area  extended  over  the  whole  crown  and  forehead. 

Even  the  birds  in  most  perfect  plumage,  showed  signs 
of  the  serious  effect  of  the  bete  rouge.  The  nape  and  back  of 
the  neck  of  almost  every  bird,  like  the  cheeks  of  the  agoutis, 
were  bare  and  mangy,  and  dotted  with  scarlet  clumps  of 


264         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 


I'lnito  \ni  W.  ]{. 

HEAD  OF  GUIANA  GREAT  TINAMOU  SHOWING 
PATCHES  OF  BETE  ROUGE 


these  pests.  These  were  larvae  of  some  species  of  Troinbi- 
dium,  probably  one  of  the  large  members  of  the  subgenus 
Dinothrombium. 

There  were  very  few  mallophaga  on  the  body  or  wings, 
but  among  the  chin  feathers  I  found  many  specimens.  These 
were  of  two  species.  One  was  small  and  narrow,  Lipeurus 
longipes,  which  has  been  recorded  from  several  other  species 
of  these  birds,  although  nothing  is  known  of  its  relationships. 
The  second  mallophaga,  which  was  of  large  size,  broad  in 
proportion,  and  quite  hairy  was  Goniodes  albiceps.  This 
has  been  found  on  Tinamus  robustus  and  T.  tao.  The  genus 
as  a  whole  has  been  recorded  from  gallinaceous  birds  and 
from  penguins. 

A  bird  of  the  year  had  a  feather-fly  upon  its  plumage. 
This  strange,  flat  insect  flew  off  several  times,  but  after  each 
excursion  returned  to  the  feathers  of  the  dead  bird.  Failing 
to  catch  it,  I  wrapped  the  whole  bird  in  a  butterfly  net,  placed 
it  in  a  chloroform  box,  and  finally  shook  the  dead  fly  from 
the  plumage. 

The  molt  of  the  tail  seemed  almost  as  irregular,  as  the 
structure  of  the  feathers  is  degenerate.  The  most  usual 
shedding  of  the  five  pairs  of  rectrices  was  as  follows:  5,  4,  2, 
3,  1.  The  molt  of  the  primaries  was  normal,  from  the  inner 


WAYS  OF  TINAMOU  265 

toward  the  outside  pairs,  but  the  fifth  secondary  was  always 
the  first  to  be  dropped. 

PILEATED   TINAMOU 

Crypturus  soui  soui  (Hermann) 

The  voice  of  this  bird  was  one  of  the  commonest  noc- 
turnal sounds  which  we  heard  from  Kalacoon  house.  It  was 
but  rarely  heard  even  at  the  edge  of  the  jungle,  never  from 
its  heart,  but  was  confined  wholly  to  the  secondgrowth  and 
the  still  more  open  clearing  of  the  rubber  plantation.  At  one 
time  or  another  it  could  be  heard  during  every  one  of  the 
four  and  twenty  hours ;  seldom,  however,  during  the  day,  and 
only  during  cloudy  weather.  From  eight  to  nine  in  the  late 
evening,  at  midnight,  and  again  from  five  to  six  in  the  early 
morning  were  three  very  pronounced  vocal  periods. 

The  trilling  differed  from  that  of  the  great  tinamou  in 
being  of  shorter  phrasing,  and  less  high  and  sweet.  Usually 
only  a  single  phrase  was  uttered,  this  being  repeated  after 
a  few  seconds,  or  after  another  bird  answered.  But  occa- 
sionally, especially  during  the  midnight  period,  the  birds 
gave  voice  to  what  was  the  acme  of  their  vocal  efforts.  The 
sweet  trills  rose  higher  and  higher  in  shortened,  excited 
cadences,  until  they  ended  abruptly  on  the  highest  note  of 
what  was  really  a  secondary  trill. 

This  may  be  visualized  thus: 


am* 


I'hoto  by  P.  G.  II. 


FIG.  86.     EGG  OF  PILEATED  TINAMOU 


WAYS  OF  TINAMOU  267 

The  usual  trill  was  of  this  linear  cadence : 


The  latter  was  the  call  which  aroused  the  excited  as- 
cending trill,  so  it  was  probably  peculiar  to  one  or  the  other 
sex. 

It  is  not  remarkable  that  we  are  ignorant  of  which  ut- 
terance characterizes  the  males,  for  the  breeding  habits  of 
these  birds  are  so  strange  that  no  transference  or  assumption 
of  qualities  would  be  surprising  in  their  sex. 

While  with  most  birds  the  breeding  season  is  confined 
to  a  fairly  well  marked  season,  with  the  pileated  tinamou, 
the  nesting  period  seemed  interminable.  From  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  of  our  stay  the  birds  never  ceased  to  call, 
and  they  apparently  nested  assiduously  throughout  the  en- 
tire six  months.  Unlike  the  great  tinamou  which  deposits  a 
number  of  eggs,  broods  them,  cares  for  the  chicks  and  has 
done,  the  pileated  deposits  but  one  egg.  At  the  vocal  solici- 
tation of  the  male,  the  female  approaches ;  she  deigns  to  lay 
her  single  egg,  and  then  departs,  whether  to  perform  the 
same  rite  for  another  male,  we  do  not  know.  The  male  takes 
charge,  and  it  was  at  this  period  that  I  found  him  on  the 
fifth  of  May,  incubating,  in  solitude,  his  single  clay-colored 
egg.  There  was  no  nest,  the  egg  being  laid  on  the  dead  leaf 
debris  in  a  recently  weeded  field  of  rubber.  It  was  quite 
fresh,  measured  40  x  31  mm.,  and  weighed  21  grams.  Two 
eggs  have  been  found  in  a  closely  related  species  in  Costa 
Rica,  but  hereabouts  only  a  single  one  was  deposited.  The 
handicap  of  number  was  compensated  by  continuity  of 
brood,  and  barely  did  one  young  pileated  reach  the  age  of 
discretion,  when  another  female  was  summoned  and  another 
egg  began  to  fulfill  its  destiny.  One  can  only  wonder;  one 
cannot  even  theorize  as  to  the  why  and  wherefore  of  such 


268         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

strange  habits,  apparently  so  wasteful  of  valuable  energy. 

Pileated  tinamou  were  to  us  an  almost  disembodied,  al- 
though omnipresent  voice.  Living  as  they  did  in  the  im- 
penetrable secondgrowth,  laced  and  bound  up  with  the  warp 
and  woof  of  razor-grass,  we  scarcely  ever  caught  even  a 
glimpse  of  them,  and  the  specimens  we  desired  had  to  be 
secured  with  quick  snap  shots,  whose  success  was  rather  luck 
than  accurate  shooting. 

They  were  much  smaller  than  the  big  tinamou,  and  a 
breeding  male  weighed  only  half  a  pound,  and  measured 
235  mm.  in  length.  The  female  was  of  the  same  weight, 
but  averaged  larger,  about  268  mm.  The  two  favorite  items 
of  diet  were  a  nondescript,  greenish  seed,  and  another  flat, 
round  and  woody,  with  yellow  flesh.  The  females  showed 
more  of  a  rich  chestnut  color  than  their  mates,  whose  feath- 
ers— poor  wretches — were  usually  worn  from  constant 
setting. 

VARIEGATED  TINAMOU 

Crypturus  variegatus  (Gmelin) 

The  third  member  of  this  strange,  terrestrial  fraternity 
lived  altogether  in  the  jungle,  where  it  was  almost  as  abun- 
dant as  the  Great  Tinamou.  Its  small  size  enabled  it  more 
often  to  escape  observation.  Its  voice  was  less  often  heard, 
and  it  was  the  sweetest  of  all  the  tinamou.  The  first  drawn- 
out  phrase  was  higher  than  the  steady  rolling  of  the  large 
bird,  and  this  was  followed  by  six  or  eight  short,  separate 
trills,  an  ascending  staccato,  which  ended  suddenly  on  the 
highest  note. 


WAYS  OF  TINAMOU  269 

Like  the  pileated,  this  tinamou  deposited  but  a  single 
egg,  and  we  found  males,  attended  by  one  three-quarters 
grown  chick,  beginning  to  incubate  a  new  egg.  Such  devo- 
tion would  be  hard  to  equal.  The  egg  was  discovered  on 
June  17,  and  it  contained  an  embryo  of  about  four  days. 

In  a  breeding  female  the  iris  was  amber ;  the  mandibles 
black,  the  lower  yellowish- white  toward  the  base;  the  legs 
and  feet  warbler-green.  The  length  varied  from  285  to 
325  mm.,  and  the  birds  weighed  about  three-quarters  of  a 
pound.  The  food  was  dominantly  seeds  and  nuts  of  various 
kinds,  some  like  acorns,  others  resembling  cherries  in  color 
and  pits.  Two  birds  only  had  eaten  insects,  small  beetles 
and  wire  worms. 

Judged  by  the  day-to-day  shooting  for  the  pot  by  the 
Indian  hunter,  the  average  proportion  of  the  sexes  was  eight 
males  to  each  female,  and  without  exception,  the  latter  were 
in  much  finer  plumage.  Curiously  enough,  however,  all  the 
chicks  and  half -grown  birds  were  females. 

The  difference  between  the  true  juvenile  and  the  adult 
plumage  is  abrupt  and  striking.  In  the  first  plumage,  the 
head  is  chestnut  rather  than  black,  and  the  feathers  of  the 
upper  parts  instead  of  being  black,  cross-barred  with  buff, 
are  rufous,  with  black  centers  and  white  tips.  Beneath,  the 
reverse  is  true  and  in  place  of  the  plain  rufous  and  white  of 
the  old  bird,  we  find  warm  buffy  feathers  barred  with  black 
and  white. 

A  few  weeks  later  another  molt  takes  place.  The  head 
becomes  black  as  in  the  adult,  but  the  body  plumage  is  inter- 
mediate between  the  juvenile  and  the  adult.  This  molt  does 
not  include  the  wing  feathers  which  change  abruptly  from 
juvenile  to  adult  pattern.  In  this  wing  molt  the  primaries 
are  replaced  regularly  from  within  outward.  The  seventh 
and  eighth  secondaries  fall  almost  simultaneously,  and  from 
these  the  molt  proceeds  both  outward  and  inward.  Both 
juvenile  and  adult  primaries  are  dark  colored,  but  the  sec- 
ondaries show  very  marked  changes  in  the  two  plumages. 


270 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Pfinto  6j/  P.  G.  H. 


FIG.  87.     EGG  OF  VARIEGATED  TINAMOU 


The  juvenile  secondaries  have  the  exposed  parts  of  the  vane 
of  a  rich  chestnut  color,  while  in  the  adult  these  feathers  are 
black  with  more  or  less  regular  barring  of  yellowish-buff. 

A  chick  of  about  two  weeks  of  age  had  ten  half-grown, 
juvenile  rectrices,  the  outer  pairs  nearly  grown,  the  inner 
mere  sheaths;  the  molt  being  thus  centripetal. 

A  comparison  of  measurements  shows  the  relative 
growth. 

Length 


2    weeks    chick. 
Adult    .. 


Middle  toe 

Bill        Wing         Tail       Tarsus    and  claw     Weight 
IT  105  28  30  20  %  Ib. 

27  155  48  40  28  %  Ib. 


CHAPTER  XV7! 

WILD  LIFE  NEAR  KALACOON 
I 

The  laboratory  room  at  Kalacoon  possessed  sixteen 
windows  and,  standing  as  it  did,  on  an  isolated  eminence,  two 
hundred  feet  above  the  Mazaruni  river,  and  the  intervening 
jungle,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  a  zoologist  could 
spend  many  weeks  in  worthwhile  observation  without  de- 
scending to  the  ground  outside,  and  years  of  study  would 
be  well  repaid  in  the  compound  itself. 

I  attempt  in  this  chapter  only  the  presentation  of  des- 
ultory notes,  but  they  each  possess  some  rcdson  d'etre  and 
as  a  whole,  suggest  the  wide  field  for  research  offered  by 
even  this  limited  area. 

I  arose  usually  before  daybreak  and  divided  many  of 
the  early  morning  hours  between  writing  and  watching  from 
the  windows  the  gradual  awakening  of  the  day's  life. 

Perhaps  the  most  noticeable  thing  was  meteorologic — 
the  calms  of  early  morning.  They  were  unvarying.  No 
matter  how  tempestuous  the  evening  before  or  the  night, 
the  dark  just  before  sunrise  and  the  hours  of  early  morning 
were  always  calm  and  quiet.  Not  a  breath  of  air  stirred. 
The  tide  flowed  silently  up  or  down,  or  for  a  short  time  held 
itself  motionless.  Rarely,  at  the  high  tide,  the  river  surface 
was  broken  by  porpoises,  or  manatees  or  a  leaping  lukananni. 
While  the  calm  was  unvarying,  the  atmosphere  might  be 
clear  to  the  horizon,  so  that  the  distant  range  of  the  Blue,  and 
the  Pull-and-be-damned  Mountains  were  sharply  defined, 
or  on  the  other  hand,  the  air  might  be  so  drenched  in  mist 
that  the  nearest  shrubs  were  quite  invisible. 

Sound  seemed  to  carry  farther  at  these  times  of  quiet. 
If  it  were  dark  the  trill  of  the  pileated  tinamou,  the  loud  cry 


272         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


hi/  W.  It. 
FIG.  88.    THE  OPEN  CLEARING  OF  KALACOON  COMPOUND 

of  the  who-are-you  or  the  indescribably  mournful  wail  of  the 
poor-me-one,  echoed  from  the  darkness  at  the  edge  of  the 
compound.  Or  later,  in  the  half-light,  these  were  replaced 
by  the  harsh  squawks  of  caracaras,  the  shrill  scream  of  par- 
rots or  macaws,  an  early  risen  kiskadee,  or  the  never-absent 
duets  of  the  little  guans  or  hanaquas. 

II 

Many  mornings  I  made  notes  on  the  awakening  of 
tropical  life,  as  I  observed  it  through  the  senses  of  sight 
and  hearing,  beginning  at  daybreak,  at  5 :30  A.  M.,  and  con- 
tinuing it  for  a  half  or  a  full  hour.  I  print  three  of  these 
tables  of  observation,  made  respectively  in  March,  May  and 
July. 


KALACOON   WILD   LIFE  273 

MARCH  26,  1916: 

5:30 — Just  light  enough  to  write;  baboons  howling  across  river;  martins 

chirping  sleepily. 
5:35 — Hanaquas  start  S.  E. 

5:38 — Second  hanaquas  start  S.     Twa-twa  slave  sings  constantly. 
5:39 — Third  hanaquas  start  E.     Jungle  pigeon  coos. 
5:40 — Yellow  warbler  sings.     Several  finches  sing. 
5:41 — Palm  tanager  flies  down  from  thorn  palm. 
5:42 — Wren  sings. 
5  :43 — Pigeon  coos  loudly. 

5 :44 — Moriche  oriole  leaves  nest  in  thorn  palm. 
5:45 — Fourth  hanaqua  N.  E.  (close  to  edge  of  compound).     First  hana- 

qua  answers.     First  martin  flies. 
5  :46 — Hanaquas  calling  in  three  directions.    The  poor-me-one  calls.    The 

midnight  song  of  the  variegated  tinamou. 
5:49 — Wren's  voice  still  dominant,  with  hanaquas  at  intervals.  Six  o'clock 

bee  cicada  starts.     Flycatchers  of  several  species  sing  their 

harsh  songs.     Thrush  far  in  the  distance,  very  sweet. 
5:55 — Second  moriche  oriole  leaves  nest. 
5:57 — Twelve   or   fifteen   martins    appear   in   sky,   coming   from  jungle. 

Twa-twa  slave  mounts  bush  and  sings  violently;  wheechew ! 

wheechee !  etc. 
6:00 — Martins  increase  in  number  and  continue  feeding.     Beetles  drone 

past,  and  big  bees  appear. 
6:01 — Three  Pitangus  lictor  begin  chasing  each  other.     Caracara  uproar 

in  distance. 
6 :04 — Kiskadees  appear  at  edge  of  clearing  and  sit  silently  on  twigs. 

Martins  and  high-perching  flycatchers  busy,  insects  are  fly- 
ing high. 
6:06 — Flock  of  katydids  come  into  clearing  and  a  dozen  flycatchers  and 

finches  chase  them  wildly. 
6:07 — Blue  tanager  passes. 
6:10 — Chorus  has  died  out,  birds  busily  feeding.     Kiskadees  call  for  first 

time  in  distance. 
6:13 — First  hummingbird  feeding. 

MAY  16,   1916: 
Clouds  in  East.    Faint  light. 

5:30  to  5:45 — Howlers,    poor-me-one,    tinamou,    who-are-you,    wife-sick, 

all  heard  during  this  period.     Bats,  hawk  over  roof. 
5 :48 — Wren  singing. 

5:50 — Palm  tanager  leaves  palm.     Jungle  pigeon  bells. 
5:51 — Dragonflies   out. 
5:52 — Hanaquas  E.  and  S. 
5:52^ — Hanaquas  S.     E.  ones  answer. 


274         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

' 


Photo  l>n  ir.  11. 


FIG.  89.    FAWN  OF  SMALL  GRAY  DEER 


5:52^4 — Hanaquas   S.   E.     E.  ones  answer. 

5:53 — E.  ones  answer. 

5:54- — New  hanaqua  couple  S.  S.  E. 

5 :55 — White-throated  kingbird  goes  to  thorn-bush  perch  and  catches  first 

insect.     First  martin  leaves  nest. 
5:56 — Six  more  martins. 
5 :57 — Six  pairs  hanaquas  calling. 

5 :58 — Kiskadees  and  streaked  flycatcher  hawking.     Indoor  martins  leave. 
5:59 — Every  high  bush  has  its  flycatcher  now,  dozens  all  over  cecropia 

forests,  flying  up  and  feeding.     First  butterfly  out. 
6:00 — Pigeons    belling   in    three   directions;    courting.      Seedeaters    still 

asleep.      Moriche   orioles   leave   palm  nest.      Harsh   cries   of 

flycatchers  dominant  for  the  last  ten  minutes.     Sun  rises  in 

clouds. 

6:03 — Amazon  parrots  leave  roost. 
6 :04 — Tinamou  in  distance ;  then  one  close  to  compound.     First  small 

flocks  of  swifts   from  jungle  toward  river. 
6:06 — Twenty  swifts  hawking  very  high  in  the  air. 
6:07 — Grass-finches  appear  and  sing. 
6:08 — Heavy  mist  blowing  from  forest,  clouds  whole  sky. 


KALACOON   WILD   LIFE 


275 


6:09 — Finch  songs  now  dominant.     Woodhewer  heard  in  distance. 

6:10 — More  swifts. 

6:11 — Finches  and  ground  birds  become  dominant  and  have  their  hour. 

JULY  2,   1916: 

Sky  clear  except  for  few  fleecy  clouds,  and  a  fezo  mountainous  island- 
clouds   along   the   bright   east.      One  star  straight  overhead. 
Everything  drenched  with  dew,  valleys  filled  with  mist. 
Light  enough  to  zvritc  easily. 

5 :30 — Wren  in  full  song.  Jungle  pigeon  in  distance,  and  baboons  howl- 
ing. First  chatter  of  martins.  Two  species  of  finches 
singing. 

5  :32 — Two  hanaquas  S. 

5:32^— Two  hanaquas  N.  E. 

5:33 — Two  hanaquas  S.  E.  (near). 

5:33j/2 — Two  hanaquas  N.  W.   (near). 

5  :35 — Dragonfly  hawking. 

5:351/2 — First  two  martins  going  to  river  to  drink.  Palm  tanagers  leav- 
ing nesting  place.  Moriche  oriole  leaves  palm. 

5  :36 — Young  martins  chirping  in  box. 

5:36T/^ — White-throated  flycatcher  makes  first  catch  and  goes  to  thorn 
tree  perch,  calling. 

5  :37 — Rooster  flaps  and  crows  twice. 

5:38 — Tinamou  trills.  Second  pair  of  nesting  martins  go  toward  river 
for  drink.  Eight  dragonflies  hawking.  Hanaquas  end  chor- 
us, each  pair  having  called  three  times. 

5:39 — Two  wrens  have  sung  almost  continuously. 

5:40 — Woodpecker  pounds  in  the  jungle  to  the  south. 

5:41%- — Indoor-nesting-martin  feeds  young. 


Photo  by  P.  G. 


FIG.  90.    YOUNG  CAICA  PARROTS 


276 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIC 


CASHEW  TREES  NEAR  KALAC 


5:421/>- — Amazon  parrots  leave  roost  going  to  forest.  Four  more  mar- 
tins hawking  high  up. 

5:43 — Eastern   island-clouds   touched   with   rose. 

5  :44 — Tinamou  in  clearing  calls. 

S-A^/2 — Four-winged  cuckoo  utters  double  note.  Four  medium-sized 
swifts  overhead. 

5 :45- — Wrens  singing  less,   feeding  among  grasses. 

5:47 — Indoor  martins  feed.     Eleven  swifts  overhead. 

5:47^ — Tinamou  calls.     First  big  bee  drones  past. 

5:48 — Box  martin  leaves. 

5:48^ — Returns   with   food. 

5:49 — Indoor  martin   feeds. 

5:49^ — Sixteen  giant  swifts  come  from  roost  near  river,  going  jungle- 
wards. 

5:50 — Several  flycatchers  appear. 


KALACOON  WILD  LIFE  277 

5:51 — Indoor  martin  feeds.  Box  martin  feeds.  Male  comes  for  first 
time,,  looks  in  and  flies  off.  Synallaxis  calls. 

5:52 — Many  small  swifts  going  towards  forest.  Clouds  all  alight  with 
brilliant  rose. 

5:53 — Box  martin  feeds. 

5:531/2 — Box  martin   feeds  a  large  adult  ant-lion  to  young. 

5 :54 — Box  martin  feeds  and  cleans  nest. 

5  :S4i^/2 — Box  martin  feeds. 

5:55 — Tinamou  trills.     Aureole  of  gold  in  sky. 

5:56 — Box  martin  feeds.     Wrens'  song  still  the  dominant  one. 

5:561/2 — Tinamou  calls  continuously. 

5:57 — Fifteen  martins  come  from  river  toward  forest. 

5:58 — Pee-zing  finch  begins  dance. 

5:59 — Indoor  martin  feeds. 

5:59l/2 — Box  martin  feeds. 

6:00 — Sun  a  ball  of  gold  comes  out  of  grey  cloud.     Box  martin  feeds. 

6:01 — Tinamou  still  calling  persistently. 

6:02 — Box  martin  feeds.     Sun  too  bright  to  look  at.     Indoor  martin  feeds. 

6:0-1 — Box  martin  feeds  and  cleans  nest.  Toucan  calling  in  distant  jun- 
gle. Bird  voices  dying  down. 

6:05 — Macaws  leave  nest  in  jungle  and  fly  over  it. 

6:06 — Synallaxis  calling  loudly  and  continuously. 

6:06  }/2 — Hummingbird  at  flower  spike  of  air-plant. 

6:06 — Flock  of  twelve  tanagers,  palms  and  blues,  going  toward  cashew 
trees. 

6:09 — Caracara  voices  in  distant  jungle. 

6:10 — Rufous  pigeon  calling. 

6:11 — Male  box  martin  feeds  and  rests  on  perch  at  box  for  thirty-one 
minutes.  Its  plumage  is  drenched  after  a  bath  in  the  river. 

6:11  % — Six  blue  tanagers  on  way  to  tree. 

6:13l/2 — Synallaxis  still  trilling.     Pee-zing  still  going. 

6:15 — The  coolies'  soft  Hindustani  is  heard  as  they  go  to  work.  Indoor 
martin  feeds.  Parrakeets  leave  roost,  going  straight  to  forest 
in  three  distinct  bands,  all  coming  from  the  same  bamboos. 

6:18 — Female  martin  feeds  and  cleans. 

6:20 — Two  very  long- winged  swifts  toward  clearing. 

6:22 — Finches  feeding  in  numbers  among  grass. 

6:23 — Fog  has  shut  out  river  and  is  surging  across  clearing.  Valley 
mists  slowly  rising. 

6:26 — Box  martin  feeds  and  rests  for  a  moment. 

6:261/0 — Box  martin  feeds  and  rests  a  few  seconds.  Male  still  perch- 
ing; as  since  6:11. 

6:27 — Giant  caciques  leave  roost. 

6:29 — Tanagers  at  intervals  passing  to  cashew  tree.  Sharp  voices  of 
hummingbirds  heard  now  and  then. 

6:32 — Wrens  begin  singing  again. 

6:35 — Synallaxis  trills.     Nothing  heard  but  chirps  of  finches. 


278         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 


FIG.  92.     GIANT  MARINE  TOAD 


6:40 — Mists  gone  from  valleys.     River  a  solid  mass  of  fog. 

6:42 — Giant  swifts   in  pairs   high  up.      Male  box  martin   leaves   perch, 

catches  insect,  returns  at  once  and  feeds: 
6:42^/2 — Then  perches  again  and  feeds. 
6:45 — Male  box  martin   leaves   for  another  quick  capture   and  returns. 

Feeds. 

As  I  was  about  to  leave,  I  saw  a  large  bird  alight  in  a 
great  cotton  tree  between  Kalacoon  and  the  river.  My 
glasses  showed  it  to  be  a  mealy  Amazon  parrot.  I  watched 
it  carefully  and  could  see  every  movement.  It  lifted  a  foot, 
scratched  its  head,  pushed  its  wing  down  and  preened  its 
plumage.  Now  and  then  it  ducked  as  one  of  four  palm 
tanagers  dashed  at  it.  In  fact,  it  was  mobbed  by  these  birds 
as  enthusiastically  as  if  it  had  been  an  owl.  It  craned  its 
neck  and  watched  with  interest  as  the  Government  steamer 
left  the  Penal  Settlement  and  started  down  river.  A  final 


KALACOON  WILD  LIFE  279 

concerted  attack  by  the  palm  tanagers  drove  it  to  leave  its 
perch  and  fly  junglewards. 

Ill 

Our  study  of  the  two  dry  and  the  two  rainy  seasons  has 
only  begun.  This  first  year  we  were  able  to  make  only  the 
merest  beginning.  As  a  hint  of  one  method  of  work,  how- 
ever, as  well  as  putting  on  record  many  incidents  of  interest, 
I  shall  print  the  daily  calendar  which  we  kept  from  June 
15  to  August  6.  The  specimens  are  all  kept  for  ultimate 
identification. 

June  15th — Weaned  fawn  of  large  deer  captured.  White-throated  thrush 
breeding.  Allied  crested  tanager  with  two  nearly  grown 
young. 

June  16th — Amazon  parrots  in  flocks.  Camaria  lepidoptera  at  lowest 
ebb;  only  three  species  of  morphos. 

June  17th — Capuchin  embryo  4/5  developed.  Variegated  tinamou,  nest 
and  one  egg;  an  embryo  of  four  days.  Spot-winged  ant- 
creeper  with  full-grown  young. 

June  18th — Lizards  courting  and  mating  (green-headed  striped  species; 
grey).  Fresh  brood  of  banded  morphos. 

June   19th — P'ork-tailed  flycatchers  in  full  molt. 

June  20th — Big  black  bumble  bee  beginning  to  burrow.  Tree-top  flock- 
ing of  birds  almost  at  highest  point  of  numbers.  Blue 
honey-creeper  in  full  molt.  Lace-winged  wax  insects 
freshly  emerged  on  trunks. 

June  21st — Immense  brood  of  small  fireflies.  Several  young  howlers 
just  able  to  climb  alone. 

June  22nd — Ten  peccaries  with  five  young,  (2,  2  and  1).  Two  curas- 
sow  chicks  two  weeks  old. 

June  23rd — Grey-headed  flatbill  nestling  leaves  nest.  Phaethornis  hum- 
mingbird in  height  of  courtship  and  battle. 

June  24th — Large  brood  of  a  jungle  ichneumon  fly,  mimicking  diptera. 
Young  caica  parrots  nearly  in  adult  plumage. 

June  25th — French  cashew  fruit  begins  to  ripen  and  fall.  Silver"-beaks 
seen  in  trees. 

June  27th — Tree-top  flocks  reach  highest  number.  Phaethornis  nesting 
begins.  Red-legged  digger  wasp  begins  second  nesting 
season. 

June  28th— Rufous-throated  ant-catcher  hatches  young. 

June  29th — Sackawinki  monkeys  three-quarters  grown.  Large  brood  of 
blue  butterflies  with  black  circles. 

June  30th- — First  big  thunder  storm  of  season. 


280         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  by  W.  B. 
FIG.  93.    CATERPILLAR  OF'SPHINX  MOTH 

July  1st — Big  brood  at  evening  lights,  of  small,  white-spotted  June- 
bugs.  Nocturnal  skipper  at  lights  in  Kalacoon; 

July  2nd — Bellbirds  appear  on  Bartica  road.  Brood  of  tiny  red  jungle 
butterflies. 

July  3rd — Morphos  along  trails  become  fewer  and  very  ragged.  Large 
colony  of  lesser  green  sand  hornets  at  height  of  nesting 
on  plantation  road. 

July  4th — New  broods  of  sphinx  larvae  in  compound.  First  big  chorus 
of  marine  toads  heard. 

July     5th — Quadrille  wren's  eggs  one-quarter  incubated. 

July  6th — Last  white-necked  crake's  nest  and  two  eggs  found  far  out 
Convict  Trail.  Many  pairs  of  small,  short-horned  grass- 
hoppers mating. 

July     7th — Smallest  kingfishers  feeding  one  young. 

July  8th — Five  new  species  of  butterflies  in  rubber  clearing,  especially 
Junonia.  Third  day  without  rain,  heat  so  great  at  noon 
that  twenty  bats  creep  out  from  eave  holes  and  hang 
outside.  Two  storms  in  evening;  first  ones. 

July  9th — Spotted  sandpiper  with  diseased  ovary  tissues,  shot  on  the 
shore. 


KALACOON   WILD   LIFE 


281 


July  10th — Fresh  brood  of  red-spotted  heliconias  sleeping  close  together. 
Tinamus  major  has  almost  completed  wing  molt. 

July   llth — Third  young  martin  from  the  box  nest  flies  for  the  first  time. 

July  12th — New  broods  of  small  butterflies  in  the  forest;  small  white 
heliconias  and  small  whites.  A  nestling  of  pygmy  wedge- 
billed  woodhewer  leaves  nest.  A  nestling  of  cayenne 
wood  rail  caught. 

July   13th — White-necked  crake  chick  ready  to  hatch. 

July   14th — Hundreds  of  lizards  about  one-third  grown  appear  suddenly. 

July  15th — Baby  howler  seen,  only  a  few  days  old.  Summer  is  surely 
here,  butterflies  increasing  daily  in  species  and  numbers. 

July  16th — Orange-plant  papilios  out.  A  single  nestling  of  Leotand 
dusky  flycatcher  just  flown. 

July  17th — Nest  and  two  eggs  of  coereba ;  eggs  purplish  black;  in 
mucka-mucka  near  water  across  Mazaruni.  Last  night 
many  curious  micro-lepidoptera  came  to  light  in  Kala- 
coon,  one  with  enormously  elongated  hind-legs. 

July  18th — New  brood  of  banded  blue  morphos.  Moriche  oriole  nest- 
ing again  in  palm. 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 


FIG.  94.     MOLE  CRICKET  AND  YOUNG 


282         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

July   19th — Sphinx  moths  hatched. 

July  20th — Trumpeters  nearly  through  molt. 

July  21st — Partridges    two-thirds    through    body    molt,    but    with    four 

young,  one  week  old.     Large  number  of  honey-creepers 

and  manakins   in  second  growth  after  the  second  crop 

of  choke-cherry  berries. 
July  22nd — Small,  very  sweet,  green  blossoms,  which  were  in  flower  in 

early   March   along   Convict   Trail,   are   now   in   second 

season  of  bloom. 

July  23rd — Fork-tailed  flycatchers  have  completed  molt. 
July  24th — Large   flocks   of   several  honey-creepers,   helmeted   and   oily 

flycatchers  in  second  growth. 
July  25th — Giant   caciques   half   through   wing  molt,   that  of  the  body 

and  tail  not  begun. 
July  26th — Fork-tailed  flycatchers  still  roosting  by  the  hundreds  in  the 

mango  trees. 

July  27th — Partridge  half  through  wing  molt. 

July  28th — Male  crickets  most  numerous  around  lights  in  evening. 
July  29th — Volatinia  in  height  of  nesting.     Many  nests  near  Kalacoon. 
July  30th — Migration  of  yellow  pieris  all  day,  N.  W.  to  S.  E.,  past  and 

near  house. 

July  31st — Mosses  at  the  height  of  their  fruiting. 
Aug.      1st — Butterfly  migration  still  on,  even  in  all  day  rain. 
Aug.     2nd — Double-toned  Chinese  music  cicada  begins  singing.     Honk- 
honk  frog  begins  behind  Kalacoon. 

Aug.    3rd — Sabian  thrushes  of  the  year  just  beginning  to  sing. 
Aug.    4th — New  poor-me-one  begins  singing  close  to  Kalacoon. 
Aug.    5th — Very  large  brood  of  pearly-white  butterflies   (Anartia  jatro- 

<phce). 
Aug.    6th — Sulphur  butterflies  still  migrating. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  ALLIGATORS  OF  GUIANA 

Floating  branches  and  logs  are  a  common  sight  on  the 
waters  of  the  creeks  and  rivers  of  Guiana,  and  about  one  in 
every  three  of  these  logs  is  an  alligator.  Common  in  many 
places  and  actually  abundant  in  a  few,  these  great  saurians 
are  far  less  conspicuous  than  their  infinitely  smaller  relatives 
— the  lizards  which  everywhere  scamper  up  tree-trunks  or 
barge  clumsily  through  the  fallen  leaves.  Several  negroes 
in  Georgetown  make  a  living  collecting  and  stuffing  young 
alligators  and  one  man  who  had  constantly  followed  this  line 
of  work  for  twenty  years  had  acquired  a  very  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  ways  of  life  of  these  giant  reptiles.  Among 
the  natives  generally,  they  are  feared  and  avoided,  and  are 
( mistakenly)  accredited  with  great  longevity,  of  one  or  two 
hundred  years. 

Caimans  or  crocodiles  are  not  found  on  the  coast,  and 
in  fact  live  only  above  the  first  falls  or  rapids  on  the  rivers 
whence  mythical  giant  crocodiles  are  occasionally  reported 
by  the  Indians. 

Alligators  occur  in  most  of  the  rivers,  creeks  and  even 
trenches  along  the  coast,  and  nests  are  found  in  Georgetown 
itself,  about  a  hundred  eggs  being  gathered  in  the  Botanical 
Gardens  each  season.  The  female  alligators,  when  full 
grown,  measure  from  three  and  a  half  to  five  feet,  while  the 
males,  in  exceptional  cases,  attain  a  length  of  nine  feet. 

The  actual  nesting  season  begins  in  May  and  reaches 
its  height  in  June.  Nests  and  eggs  are  still  to  be  found  in 
lessening  numbers  in  July  and  August,  but  no  eggs  have 
been  taken  either  in  April  or  September.  The  number  laid 
by  each  female  varies  from  twenty  to  forty,  each  weighing 
about  three  ounces.  They  require  at  least  seventy-five  days 


284         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


i'hot»  '>,/  w.  n. 


FIG.'95.    TUBFUL  OF  NEWLY-HATCHED  ALLIGATORS 


to  hatch.  The  little  'gators  are  about  eight  inches  long,  a 
whole  inch  of  which  is  gained  within  a  few  hours  after  break- 
ing the  shell. 

Three  weeks  before  actual  laying  commences,  the  female 
alligator  gathers  together  a  pile  of  water-soaked  or  decayed 
vegetation,  pulling  it  up  and  carrying  it  in  her  mouth  to 
some  secluded  spot  on  the  bank  of  a  trench  or  creek.  Here 
she  piles  it  and  mats  it  down  rather  firmly  in  a  rough  heap 
about  two  feet  in  height.  When  alligators  have  been  much 
bothered  or  persecuted,  they  will  often  select  a  pegass  trench 
and  make  their  nest  on  the  floating  veg'etation  in  the  center, 
out  of  the  reach  of  any  passing  native. 

When  several  weeks  have  passed,  she  tears  the  nest  open 


ALLIGATORS  OF   GUIANA  285 

and  lays  her  eggs  in  the  center  of  the  hot  steaming  mass. 
Unlike  the  turtles  which  lay  their  eggs  in  the  sand  banks  of 
the  neighboring  rivers,  she  does  not  desert  the  nest,  but  re- 
mains most  of  the  day  somewhere  in  the  vicinity.  She  does 
not  feed  there,  however,  but  daily  swims  to  some  more  dis- 
tant place.  Her  food  consists  of  fish,  frogs  and  snakes,  with 
whatever  small  animals  or  birds  can  be  captured,  while  dead 
creatures  and  even  carrion  are  eaten  without  hesitation.  If 
the  feeding  ground  is  at  a  considerable  distance  it  is  an  easy 
matter  to  open  the  nest  and  examine  the  eggs  undetected, 
but  if  the  alligator  does  not  have  to  go  far,  she  will  return 
at  the  slightest  sound. 

Alligators  differ  considerably  in  their  courage.  Some 
will  leave  the  nest  after  a  few  weak  protests,  while  others 
will  obstinately  remain  sprawled  over  their  precious  rubbish 
heap  and  have  to  be  killed  before  their  nest  can  be  robbed. 
The  mother  alligator  remains  faithfully  at  her  post  until 
the  time  of  hatching,  in  which  process  she  gives  material 
assistance.  The  two  and  a  half  months  of  alternate  drench- 
ing and  baking  by  rain  and  sun  often  cakes  the  nest  mound 
with  a  hard-baked  crust  through  which  the  gatorlings  would 
find  it  impossible  to  force  their  way.  So  the  parent  bites 
into  the  nest,  tossing  the  outer  shell  to  one  side  until  the 
pipped  eggs  or  the  newly  hatched  young  are  exposed.  When 
this  is  done  she  rolls  out  the  pipped  eggs  and  pressing  upon 
them  with  one  of  her  front  feet,  she  cracks  them  and  liberates 
the  young  'gator.  The  eggs  which  are  still  whole  she  rolls 
back  among  the  debris  and  leaves  until  the  low,  nasal, 
squeaking  grunts  announce  that  more  are  ready  to  emerge. 
The  young  are  able  to  hatch  by  themselves,  but  it  is  usually 
a  very  long  operation  and  many  die  in  the  shells. 

I  examined  one  which  had  had  his  little  pugnosed  snout 
thrust  through  the  end  of  the  shell  for  twenty-four  hours 
and  was  just  about  to  break  a  bit  away  from  the  hole  when 
the  little  reptile  shot  forth  like  a  jack-in-the-box,  freeing 
himself  completely  except  for  his  tail.  He  sprang  from  my 


286         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  by  W.  B. 


FIG.  98.    YOUNG  ALLIGATORS  MOUNTED  FOR  SALE 


hands  into  a  basin  of  water,  where  he  dived  and  swam  fran- 
tically, the  banging  of  the  tail-suspended  shell  against  the 
tin  frightening  the  newly  hatched  reptile,  and  conveying  a 
first  impression  of  the  world  as  a  fearsome,  undesirable  place. 
He  blinked,  rose  to  the  surface,  shook  off  the  egg  shell,  and 
turning  sideways  snapped  at  a  spot  of  sunlight.  For  a  day 
and  night,  the  past  twenty-four  hours,  only  the  snout  had 
projected.  In  three  seconds  more  the  whole  being  of  the 
perfect  gatorling  was  functioning,  fully  launched  on  what 
would  normally  be  a  long  and  checkered  career. 

The  mother  alligator  goes  to  the  nests  with  the  young, 
and  while  some  swim  away  and  are  lost,  or  forage  for  them- 
selves, yet  many  female  'gators  are  seen  at  other  times  of 


ALLIGATORS  OF  GUIANA  287 

the  year  accompanied  by  small  ones  of  two  distinct  sizes, 
which  the  hunters  believe  are  the  remnants  of  the  breeds  of 
the  two  past  years,  still  more  or  less  attendant  upon  her. 

The  watchfulness  of  the  parent  is  of  course  a  trait  in- 
herited through  long  past  centuries,  and  is  in  no  way  conse- 
quent upon  the  very  recent,  desultory  robbing  of  the  nests 
by  man.  But  it  is  curious  that  their  worst  enemy  at  present 
is  that  most  terrible  pest  introduced  by  man,  from  India, 
the  mongoose.  The  only  autochthonous  foe  is  the  big  tegu, 
known  locally  as  salimpenta.  Both  of  these  enemies  wait 
until  the  parent  alligator  has  gone  away  and  then  dig  their 
way  down  to  the  eggs.  The  big  yellow-tailed  snake  has  been 
seen  trying  to  force  its  way  through  the  crust  of  the  rubbish, 
but  in  vain. 

The  mating  season  begins  in  April  and  is  announced 
by  the  females  calling  the  males.  The  proportions  of  sexes 
is  very  unequal,  there  being  twenty  or  more  females  to  every 
male.  The  cry  of  the  female  is  a  subdued,  but  very  strong 
and  penetrating  grunt,  often  repeated.  The  male's  voice  is 
a  bellowing  or  roaring,  and  when  this  is  heard  in  the  trench, 
every  female  within  hearing  rushes  toward  him,  ten  or  fifteen 
sometimes  surrounding  him  at  once.  After  mating,  each 
goes  off  to  her  respective  nest,  where  she  deposits  the  entire 
number  of  eggs  at  one  laying,  afterwards  covering  them 
carefully. 

The  male  never  goes  near  the  nest,  except  under  very 
unusual  circumstances,  and  it  is  in  this  connection  that  my 
alligator  hunter  indulged  his  belief  in  a  romantic  yarn,  which 
he  was  convinced  was  true.  I  recount  it  rather  as  a  pleasant 
bit  of  negro  imagination,  than  as  an  addition  to  reptilian 
psychology.  My  hunter  said  that  now  and  then  he  came 
across  maimed  and  crippled  females  which  yet  had  well- 
built  nests  full  of  eggs.  One  such  was  an  animal  which  had 
three  feet  bitten  off,  leaving  only  one  hind  leg.  She  could 
not  get  up  the  trench  bank  without  support,  and  yet  her 
nest  was  on  the  top.  After  trapping  her,  the  hunter  con- 


288 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIG.  97.     GUIANA  ALLIGATORS.  ONE  DAY  OLD 
a.  Gooseway       b.  Abary       c.  Goomasaka 


cealed  himself  and  called,  and  was  surprised  to  be  answered 
by  a  big  seven-foot  bull  'gator  which  came  out  of  the  water 
to  the  nest.  In  this  and  several  other  instances,  so  my  hunter 
argued,  the  male  must  have  built  the  nest,  as  well  as  helping 
the  female  to  get  out  of  the  water  whenever  she  returned 
to  it. 

When  an  alligator  is  trapped  or  caught  in  the  hand  it 
utters  loud  chirping  squeaks,  not  unlike  the  distress  cries  of 
some  birds.  By  imitating  this,  all  the  alligators  within  hear- 
ing will  answer  and  approach,  most  of  them  being  females, 
with  now  and  then  an  occasional  male. 

Every  season  my  alligator  hunter  collects  more  than 
three  thousand  eggs,  of  which  sometimes  only  about  eight 
hundred  hatch.  In  every  'gator's  nest  there  are  always  a 


ALLIGATORS  OF  GUIANA  289 

number  of  infertile  eggs,  ranging  from  five  to  twenty  per 
cent.  In  a  six  weeks'  nest,  these  can  already  be  detected 
and  thrown  away,  but  in  a  nest  where  the  eggs  have  been 
deposited  only  three  weeks,  the  fertile  cannot  be  told  from 
the  infertile  ones.  The  fertile  eggs  remain  white,  but  the 
bad  ones  soon  turn  yellow,  at  first  in  spots  and  later  all 
over.  In  a  healthy  egg  with  a  four- weeks'  embryo,  the  two 
end  thirds  of  the  egg  are  pale  pink  or  flesh  color.  The  sur- 
face of  some  eggs  is  almost  smooth,  but  usually  the  lime  in- 
crustations resemble  the  convolutions  of  brain  coral. 

^The  hunters  recognize  three  kinds  of  alligators,  both 
young  and  adults  of  which  they  can  distinguish  on  sight. 
These  are  known  respectively  as  the  Abary,  the  Goosway 
and  the  Goomasaka  (Fig,  97).  The  principal  distinguish- 
ing characters  between  the  three  are  the  black  dorsal  mark- 
ings. Between  the  front  and  hind  legs  there  are  four,  rarely 
five,  transverse  black  bands.  In  the  Abary  most  of  these 
bands  are  interrupted  in  the  middle  line  of  the  back;  in  the 
Goosway,  they  form  solid,  continuous  transverse  zones  of 
pigment ;  while  in  the  Goomasaka,  the  bands  on  each  side  of 
the  back  line  alternate,  the  lateral  halves  of  one  side  being 
opposite  the  lighter  interspace  of  the  opposite  side.  Every 
individual  'gator  of  any  one  brood  always  conforms  to  one 
or  the  other  of  the  types,  but  breeds  of  intermediate  types  are 
occasionally  found,  and  these  are  considered  as  the  result  of 
inter-breeding  of  two  of  the  forms./1 

The  Abary  and  Goosway  are  the  common  forms  and 
found  over  most  of  the  coastal  area,  while  the  Goomasaka 
is  very  much  rarer  and  confined  chiefly  to  Berbice.  These 
are  also  reputed  much  fiercer  than  the  others,  more  ready 
to  attack  any  intruder,  and  to  be  able  to  stay  for  a  much 
longer  time  under  the  water.  When  adult  there  are  four 
long  teeth  in  the  lower  jaw  which  project  through  the  bone 
and  skin  of  the  upper.  The  Abary  and  Goosway  on  the 
contrary,  have  teeth  which  are  much  more  even. 


290         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

Few  living  alligators  are  sold.  The  eggs  are  gathered, 
sorted  as  to  degree  of  development,  and  kept  until  hatched 
in  boxes  filled  with  vegetable  debris.  The  alligators  are 
confined  in  tubs  of  water  and  within  a  day  or  two  are  killed 
and  stuffed,  standing  in  absurd  postures,  erect  on  their  hind 
legs.  Forever  after  they  gaze  through  shoebutton  eyes,  and 
hold  their  little  fore  arms  stiffly  out  to  receive  the  card  tray 
for  which  their  future  destiny  intends  them.  Tourists,  with 
unbelievable  eagerness,  purchase  these  atrocities  at  a  shilling 
each,  doubtless  to  repose  beside  wax  flowers  or  to  share  some 
dusty  northern  shelf  with  a  conch  shell  or  a  sandalwood  box. 
In  spite  of  this  the  'gators  of  Guiana  are  holding  their  own. 
The  toll  of  infants  to  be  metamorphosed  into  ornaments  is 
less  hurtful  to  the  race  than  the  sacrificing  of  the  skins  of 
the  adults  for  satchels. 


PART  II 

ORNITHOLOGICAL 
BY  G.  INNESS  HARTLEY 

RESEARCH  ASSOCIATE 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

NOTES  ON  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  JACANA 

An  examination  of  several  stages  of  development  in 
the  growth  of  the  jacana  brings  to  light  many  interesting 
and  perhaps  significant  facts  that  so  far  have  been  over- 
looked. There  are  several  curious  external  characters  which 
cause  the  adult  bird  to  stand  apart  from  others  as  an  ex- 
ample of  great  specialization.  These  are  chiefly  due  to  a 
gradual  change  of  conditions  which  called  for  a  development 
of  certain  characters  and  a  degeneration  or  loss  of  others. 
The  enormous  toes  and  claws  enable  it,  one  might  almost 
say,  to  walk  on  the  waters,  and  the  great  shield  on  the  fore- 
head must  have  some  special  use  which  is  still  unexplained. 
The  claw  of  the  thumb  has  degenerated  to  a  mere  remnant 
and  that  on  the  finger  has  quite  disappeared,  while  a  huge 
spur  has  developed  at  the  wrist  and  doubtless  is  of  great 
value  as  a  means  of  defense.  By  this  interchange  of  char- 
acters the  bird  has  become  fitted  to  its  present  environment 
so  that  it  stands  out  above  many  others  as  an  example  of 
adaptation.  In  the  embryo  we  find  many  characters  which 
have  long  since  disappeared  from  the  adult,  and  in  the  grow- 
ing chicks  we  note  the  development  of  many  that  have  been 
more  recently  acquired. 

PTERYLOSIS 

In  the  half  developed  embryo  the  feather  tracts  are  in- 
dicated by  elongated  papillae,  which  in  reality  are  developed 
feather  sheaths,  and  in  which  may  be  seen  traces  of  pig- 
ment. Those  of  the  tail  are  the  most  advanced,  the  sheath 
buds  of  the  rectrices  and  their  coverts  being  nearly  a  milli- 
meter long  and  full  of  pigment.  On  the  flank,  running  from 
just  above  the  knee  and  directly  in  line  with  the  rectrices, 


294         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA  ' 

is  a  single  row  of  pigmented  sheaths,  superimposed  by  an- 
other row  of  covert-like  sheaths.  These  are  of  special  inter- 
est as  representing  the  pelvic  wing  recently  demonstrated 
by  Beebe.  * 

A  later  embryo,  probably  not  more  than  twenty-four 
hours  older,  shows  a  further  development  of  the  tail  and 
body  tracts.  The  spinal  tract  has  become  pigmented  with 
a  light  brown  color,  its  sheaths  being  especially  developed 
along  the  dorsal  region,  where  some  equal  the  rectrices  in 
length.  No  other  pterylae  are  pigmented  or  much  elongated. 

The  spinal  tract  is  quite  wide  and  divided  by  a  long 
cleft  above  the  dorsal  and  sacral  regions  which  unite  at  the 
neck  and  lower  pelvic.  The  femorals,  accentuated  by  the  line 
of  pigmented  sheaths  and  their  coverts,  are  large.  They 
join  the  crural  or  leg  tract  to  form  a  continuous  field,  which 
extends  over  the  upper  two-thirds  of  the  crus  and  joins  the 
spinal  pterylae  behind  the  humeral  tract  above,  and  the  ven- 
tral just  below  the  point  of  the  sternum. 

The  two  scapular  tracts  are  broad  as  in  the  adult  and 
the  sternal  is  divided  into  two  narrow  bands,  one  on  each 
side  of  the  keel,  the  space  between  being  very  narrow  and 
extending  from  the  point  of  the  sternum  to  the  upper  throat. 
The  pectorals  are  wide  and  extend  from  half  way  between 
the  wing  and  the  crus  to  the  shoulder,  where  they  join  the 
sternal. 

The  embryonic  pterylosis  of  the  jacana  more  nearly 
approaches  the  Limicoline  type  than  that  of  the  Fulicariae 
as  claimed  by  Nitzsch.  In  speaking  of  the  adult  birds, 
Forbes  says2:  "In  their  possession  of  well-marked  firm  rec- 
trices, in  the  weakness  of  the  lumbar  tracts,  and  in  the  tend- 
ency to  a  division  of  the  dorsal  tract  into  an  anterior  and 
posterior  fork,  the  Parridae  differ  from  the  typical  Rallinae, 
and  approach  the  Limicoline  type."  These  facts  are  in  the 

1  'Looloyica,  Vol.  II,  No.  2. 

2  Notes  on  the  Anatomy  and  Systematic  Position  of  the  Jacantis  (Parridae). 
Proc.  Zool.  Soc.  London,  1881,  page  640. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  JACANA  295 

main  true  of  the  embryo,  except  in  regard  to  the  weakness 
of  the  lumbar  or  femoral  tracts.  While  it  cannot  be  said 
that  all  are  very 'strong,  portions  are  especially  well  devel- 
oped and  the  sheaths  are  nearly  as  well  marked  and  firm  as 
the  rectrices.  In  this  respect  they  approach  the  Columbine 
type. 

Forbes  goes  on  to  say:  "The  same  relationship  is  indi- 
cated by  the  inner,  or  main,  pectoral  (sternal)  tract,  though 
very  narrow,  consisting,  at  least  at  its  commencement,  of 
two  or  three  rows  of  feathers  in  the  Parridae,  as  well  as  in 
the  Charadriidae ;  whereas  in  the  typical  Rallidae,  according 
to  Xitzsch,  it  issues  from  the  branch  as  only  a  single  row  of 
feathers."  This  is  also  true  of  the  embryo.  The  fact  that 
the  lower  tracts  all  join  and  fuse  together  throughout  the 
lower  ventral  half  of  the  body,  though  probably  of  ancestral 
origin,  strengthens  the  supposition  that  the  bird  belongs  to 
the  Limicolae,  as  this  condition  is  very  nearly  duplicated  in 
the  woodcock. 

The  first  embryo  shows  eight  rectrices  developed,  with 
two  outside  papillae  still  to  lengthen;  the  later  stage  shows 
ten.  They  are  divided  into  two  groups,  one  on  either  side 
of  the  medial  line  with  the  intervening  space  very  wide 
and  including  the  long,  blunt  end  of  the  uropygium.  The 
longest  rectrices  are  central,  and  the  shortest — mere  buds 
— outside.  Both  upper  and  under  coverts  are  well  developed 
and  are  as  long  as  the  rectrices,  the  under  ones,  however, 
being  without  pigment.  The  primaries  and  secondaries 
show  only  as  papillae,  ten  for  each,  while  on  the  uropygial 
gland  there  are  traces  of  undeveloped  feathers. 

An  examination  of  the  three-day  chick  shows  that  the 
rectrices  have  moved  together  at  the  center  so  as  to  make 
an  unbroken  line,  though  the  outer  feathers,  as  in  the  em- 
bryo, are  only  half  as  long  as  the  central.  The  upper  co- 
verts— of  which  there  are  now  five  pairs  instead  of  four — 
are  the  same  length  as  the  rectrices  and  so  close  to  them  that 


296         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

they  seem  scarcely  separable.  The  uropygial  gland  is 
feathered. 

The  primaries  and  secondaries  at  last  have  commenced 
to  grow.  They  consist,  like  the  tail,  of  down  feathers,  but 
are  very  short,  though  the  secondaries  are  only  three-quarters 
as  long  as  the  primaries.  A  most  noticeable  point  is  their 
great  weakness  and  smallness  as  compared  with  the  tail. 

In  a  third,  slightly  older  bird,  the  tail,  which  must  have 
grown  rapidly,  is  comparatively  long;  true  feathers  have 
taken  the  place  of  the  down,  which  still  adheres  to  their  tips. 
The  relationship  of  the  outer  feather  to  the  center  is  about 
the  same  as  in  the  preceding  chick,  but  the  tail  as  a  whole 
has  far  outstripped  any  other  feathered  portion  of  the  body. 
The  coverts  are  still  very  close  to  the  rectrices  and  the  uropy- 
gial feathers  are  greatly  lengthened. 

Practically  no  growth  has  been  made  by  the  primaries ; 
the  secondaries,  however,  have  forged  ahead  and  are  half 
again  as  long  as  the  primaries.  They  are  very  short  near 
the  wrist,  but  grow  longer  as  they  approach  the  elbow.  None 
of  the  wing  feathers  are  more  than  half  the  length  of  the  tail. 

When  the  young  jacana  is  half  way  to  maturity  its 
tail  is  nearly  full  adult  length,  though  the  feathers  are  not 
quite  so  strong  and  heavy  as  in  the  mature  bird.  The  pri- 
maries have  now  broken  from  their  sheaths  and  a  few  even 
surpass  the  secondaries  in  length.  They  are  still  very  short, 
however.  Except  for  the  thumb,  on  which  there  are  several 
well  developed  sheaths,  the  pinion  otherwise  is  practically 
devoid  of  feathers.  The  primaries  are  divided  into  two  sets : 
the  first,  on  the  carpal  portion  of  the  hand,  consisting  of 
four  short  and  rather  weak  feathers  of  equal  length;  the 
second  set,  or  outer  set,  is  embedded  in  the  digital  portion  of 
the  pinion.  Beginning  at  the  sixth,  which  is  nearly  twice 
as  long  as  the  preceding  four,  they  gradually  shorten  as  they 
approach  the  tip  so  that  the  outer  primary  is  only  as  long 
as  the  four  on  the  carpals.  The  outer  six  are  much  stronger 
and  heavier  than  the  others.  (See  Fig.  98.) 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  JACANA  297 

This  gradual  arrested  development  of  the  outer  feath- 
ers undoubtedly  is  a  remnant  of  the  long  forgotten  ages, 
when  the  jacana  was  a  tree  climber.  As  in  the  hoatzin  and 
the  pheasant — though  to  no  such  extent — the  shortening 
possibly  carries  back  to  the  time  when  the  young  nestling 
made  its  unsteady  way  from  branch  to  branch,  reaching  and 
clinging  with  clawed  fingers  to  whatever  would  lend  a  firm 
wing  hold.  Now  the  claw  at  the  tip  of  the  wing  is  gone  and 
only  a  mere  trace,  in  the  shortening  of  these  feathers,  is  left 
to  hint  of  those  early  habits. 

The  reason  for  the  curtailing  of  the  four  carpal  remiges 
still  remains  unsolved,  though  possibly  it  is  due  to  certain 
undetermined  present  day  causes. 

At  this  stage  the  secondary  coverts  are  very  long  and 
extend  beyond  the  secondaries  for  nearly  four  times  their 
length.  They  form  a  temporary,  secondary  wing  of  sorts, 
and  are  fully  matured  in  length.  (See  Fig.  98.)  The  accel- 
eration must  be  due  to  some  fairly  recent  cause  and  undoubt- 
edly they  are  of  great  aid  to  the  young  bird  essaying  its  early 
flights.  The  wing  rapidly  changes  to  its  normal  appearance 
between  half  maturity  and  maturity,  so  that  by  the  time  the 
chick  attains  its  full  juvenile  plumage,  the  primaries,  secon- 
daries and  their  coverts  have  assumed  their  natural  adult 
condition. 

Embryos  are  supposed  to  retain  throughout  their  early 
stages  some  at  least  of  their  ancestral  characters,  which  later 
disappear.  Some  characters  are  especially  prominent  at  first 
and  then  die  out,  while  others  remain  to  disappear  more 
slowly  at  later  stages  in  life.  Thus  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
tail  in  the  jacana,  both  in  the  embryo  and  immature  bird, 
would  seem  to  be  an  ancient  character  which  has  been  checked 
toward  maturity  in  the  modern  bird  through  lack  of  use  or 
some  other  cause.  Its  advanced  development  in  the  young 
embryo  shows  that  it  is  one  of  the  oldest  ancestral  feather 
characters  and  must  have  played  an  important  part  at  some 
time.  This  being  the  case,  the  tail  was  probably,  at  some 


SI 


5  8  i 

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fe    2  * 


I 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  JACANA  299 

period,  of  much  greater  size  than  it  is  today.  Thus  we  can 
imagine  an  ancestral  bird  with  clawed  thumb  and  finger  that 
nested  in  trees ;  probably  with  a  stronger  flight,  and  certainly 
with  a  better  balanced  and  longer  tail  than  at  present. 

DIASTATAXY 

A  crowding  and  reduction  of  the  fourth  secondary  oc- 
curs in  the  young  chick,  which  in  some  way  may  be  due  to 
the  diastataxy  of  the  wing.  There  are  ten  secondaries  and 
eleven  coverts  in  the  embryo,  the  extra  covert  being  placed 
between  the  fourth  and  fifth.  It  is  small  and  raised  slightly 
out  of  line  from  the  others,  there  also  being  a  slight  shifting 
out  of  place  of  the  one  above.  Here,  however,  the  shifting 
appears  to  cease  and  the  coverts  above  remain  in  their  regu- 
lar positions. 

At  hatching  time  or  a  little  later,  the  extra  covert  falls 
directly  into  line  and  now  regularly  becomes  the  fifth,  while 
the  original  fifth  becomes  the  sixth,  and  so  on.  There  is, 
however,  no  fifth  secondary  to  which  it  may  become  a  covert. 
All  the  down  secondaries  are  in  line.  (Fig.  98.) 

Now  comes  a  curious  phase  in  the  growth  of  the  secon- 
daries themselves.  As  they  commence  to  grow  rapidly,  the 
fourth  is  left  far  behind  as  a  mere  little  bud,  crowded  and 
pushed  up  out  of  line  as  was  once  the  extra  covert.  After 
a  period  it  manages  to  regain  the  line  and,  at  first  very  slowly, 
to  lengthen.  Later,  however,  when  the  secondaries  are  near- 
ly grown  it  more  than  recovers  the  strength  it  once  lost  and, 
pushing  quickly  ahead,  overtakes  the  rest  before  they  are 
fully  matured.  (Fig.  98.) 

It  is  hard  to  account  for  this  condition,  though  the  dias- 
tataxy of  the  wing  may  have  something  to  do  with  it.  It 
is  possible  that  some  particular  stress  exerted  by  the  move- 
ment of  the  changing  coverts,  may  have  caused  it  to  be  drawn 
up,  though  why  the  down  sheath  should  be  in  line  and  not 
the  main  sheath,  can  be  answered  only  by  a  more  thorough 


300         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

examination  of  other  specimens.  That  it  is  of  regular  occur- 
rence in  the  young  chicks  is  assured  by  the  fact  that  its  pres- 
ence was  noted  in  several  hirds  at  different  stages  of  growth. 

A   FEW   POINTS  CONCERNING  THE  EMBRYONIC    HEAD 

The  embryonic  bill  is  short,  with  a  blunt  end,  somewhat 
compressed,  and  both  mandibles  are  of  the  same  length. 
There  is  a  small  "egg-tooth"  on  the  tip  of  the  upper  mandi- 
ble. An  examination  of  several  specimens  for  the  length  of 
bill  as  compared  with  the  adult  shows  a  steady  uniformity 
in  the  growth  of  that  organ  as  compared  with  the  age  of  the 
chick. 

The  nostrils  do  not  appear  through  the  thick  membrane 
of  the  nasal  fossa  until  near  hatching  time.  In  the  three-day 
chick  they  are  small  round  apertures,  7  mm.  from  the  tip 
of  the  bill.  As  the  bird  grows  older,  they  gradually  increase 
in  length,  becoming  oval,  until  in  the  adult  they  are  twice 
as  long  as  broad  and  lie  parallel  to  the  culmen. 

The  skin  flap  about  the  bill  extends  far  up  between  the 
great  eyes  of  the  embryo,  and  fills  the  entire  space  between 
them.  It  consists  of  a  long,  soft,  loose  flap  of  tissue  attached 
to  the  base  of  the  bill.  In  the  hatched  chicks  it  hardens  and 
becomes  much  shorter,  taking  on  the  shape  and  proportion- 
ate size  of  the  adult  wattle. 

TOES  AND  CLAWS 

The  extraordinary  length  of  the  claws  is  of  special  in- 
terest in  this  bird.  The  claw  of  the  hind  toe  greatly  length- 
ens as  the  bird  matures  until  it  far  surpasses  any  of  the  oth- 
ers. In  the  embryo  it  is  very  little  longer  than  the  rest  and 
composes  about  one-third  of  the  toe.  The  other  claws  are 
of  normal  size,  blunt  at  the  end  and  extend  straight  out  from 
the  toe  with  a  slight  downward  curve. 

After  the  jacana  is  hatched  the  hind  claw  commences 
to  grow  rapidly  while  the  others  remain  stationary,  except 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  JACANA  301 

that  they  all  become  pointed  with  a  more  noticeable  down- 
ward curve.  (Fig.  99.)  By  the  time  the  chick  is  one-third 
grown  the  hind  claw  measures  exactly  one-half  of  the  hind 
toe.  The  forward  claws  commence  to  elongate  slowly,  but 
still  remain  slightly  curved.  After  several  days  of  steady 
increase,  however,  the  curve  straightens  out  and  the  second 
and  third  claws  are  nearly  two-thirds  as  long  as  the  hind 
claw.  This  last  is  still  growing,  but  more  slowly,  and  com- 
poses only  a  little  more  than  half  the  toe.  The  rapid  growth 
of  the  front  claws  is  of  short  duration  and  at  maturity  the 
first  claw  is  greatly  lengthened  again,  far  outdistancing  any- 
thing else,  so  that  it  finally  makes  up  about  two-thirds  of 
the  hind  toe.  The  other  claws  gradually  straighten  and 
thicken,  their  development  during  the  later  stage  being  to- 
ward strength  rather  than  length. 

There  can  be  but  small  hesitancy  in  declaring  that  the 
claws  are  not  a  product  of  ancient  acquirement;  the  last 
doubt  is  swept  aside  by  the  fact  that  in  the  embryo,  and  even 
the  young  nestlings  they  are  small  and  practically  like  those 
of  other  birds.  The  long  toes,  on  the  other  hand,  are  of  more 
ancient  origin,  for  only  in  the  very  early  embryonic  stages 
are  they  short.  In  later  stages  and  at  the  time  of  hatching, 
they  are  of  enormous  size  and  do  not  change  proportionally 
during  the  entire  growth  to  maturity.  When  one  sees  the 
jacana  stalking  in  stately  fashion  from  lily  pad  to  pad — 
with  the  pad  often  slowly  sinking,  but  not  too  fast,  because 
of  the  evenly  applied  weight,  one  easily  understands  why 
these  characters  exist ;  that  their  development  is  due  to  a 
specialization  of  habit. 

Continually  driven  by  some  water-fearing  animal  or 
other  cause  to  seek  safety  and  food  on  the  lily  pads,  it  soon 
became  a  habit  with  the  jacana  to  remain  there.  Because 
the  weight  was  applied  more  evenly  to  a  larger  space  on  the 
pads,  it  followed  that  the  bird  with  the  longest  toes  could 
travel  farther,  and  glean  more,  and  run  less  danger  of  falling 
into  the  water,  possibly  to  be  devoured,  than  those  less  for- 


302         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  by  P.  G.  U. 
FIG.  99.    CLAWS  OF  THJIEE-DAY-OLD  JACANA  SHOWING  CURVATURE 

Innately  provided  with  shorter  toes.  Thus  a  useful  tend- 
ency was  fostered  and,  through  long  past  ages  of  gradual 
selection,  the  lengthened  toes  slowly  evolved. 

SPUBS 

Quoting  from  Forbes,  we  find  that:  "The  'spur'  in  Par- 
ra  jacana  at  least,  consists  of  an  external,  translucent,  yellow 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  JACANA  303 

epidermic  layer,  which  invests  a  central  core  of  compact 
fibrous  tissue,  this  in  turn  being  supported  by  a  long  pro- 
jection developed  at  the  radial  side  of  the  first  metacarpal." 
The  first  metacarpal,  which  in  most  birds  has  a  projection 
on  its  radial  surface,  has  become  elongated  to  form  a  base 
for  the  great  spur.  It  is  first  noticeable  as  a  very  slight  en- 
largement of  the  bone  in  the  newly  hatched  chick.  As  the 
chick  becomes  older,  the  projection  continues  to  grow,  but 
the  epidermis  does  not  commence  to  harden  until  the  bird 
is  at  least  half  grown.  Up  to  that  time  it  is  only  a  bony 
knob  covered  with  ordinary  soft  skin.  From  now  on,  how- 
ever, it  begins  to  take  the  form  of  a  spur,  but  does  not  become 
a  sharpened  point  until  the  bird  reaches  full  maturity. 

Forbes  failed  to  mention  the  second  spur,  if  spur  it  may 
be  called.  It  is  a  small  blunt  protuberance  situated  just 
below  the  large  spur  and  consists  of  an  "external,  translu- 
cent, yellow  epidermic  layer."  It  is  supported  by  a  small 
bony  ridge  on  the  ulnare  which  extends  up  across  the  inner 
side  of  the  wrist.  In  the  young  bird  the  ulnare  possesses  a 
ridge  on  its  inner  posterior  surface,  caused  by  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  third  metacarpal  on  which  the  ulnare  rests.  Al- 
though late  to  ossify,  the  ridge  finally  becomes  a  base  for 
the  secondary  spur.  It  is  doubtless  used  to  strengthen  the 
larger  spur  as  a  means  of  defense. 

SOME  ONTOGENETIC  ArARIATIONS 

In  Figure  100,  the  body  length  of  an  adult  is  taken  as  a 
constant  and  the  bodies  of  chicks  and  embryos  of  various 
stages  are  proportionally  raised  to  that  size.  Thus,  if  the 
body  of  an  embryo  were  as  large  as  an  adult,  the  wing  and 
leg  would  be  as  long  as  in  the  blocked  figure.  By  this  means, 
an  idea  may  be  obtained  of  the  relationship,  throughout  dif- 
ferent stages  of  development,  of  the  several  limbs  to  the 
body. 

The  embryo  shows  a  fairly  well  defined  balance  between 
the  leg,  wing  and  body  such  as  one  would  ordinarily  expect 


Adult 


grovrvCKic 


WlNQ 


Etnb 


FIG.  100.  CHART  OF  RELATIONSHIP  BETWEEN  LEG,  BODY  AND 
WING  OF  THE  GROWING  JACANA 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  JACANA  305 

to  see  in  a  bird  with  an  evenly  balanced  use  and  development 
of  both  limbs,  as  is  found  in  many  Passeres  and  others.  The 
leg  commences  to  grow  with  rapidity,  however,  before  the 
embryo  hatches,  so  that  in  the  very  young  chick  we  find  it 
almost  proportionally  as  long  as  in  the  adult.  The  elonga- 
tion at  this  time  is  greater  than  in  any  long-legged  bird  I 
have  examined. 

As  time  advances  the  legs  continue  to  lengthen  until 
the  chick  is  more  than  half  grown ;  then  comes  a  slackening, 
while  the  wings  commence  to  elongate  and  put  on  their  flight 
feathers.  Until  shortly  before  this  period,  they  had  re- 
mained practically  at  a  standstill — little  insignificant,  use- 
less, downy  appendages.  The  little  brown-striped  bird  with 
gigantic  legs,  having  until  now  no  need  for  wings,  success- 
fully hides  among  the  stalks  of  rice  and  heavy  matted  grass 
that  cover  the  savannah,  or  plunges  into  the  thickets  of  reeds 
that  line  the  inland  pools. 

The  necessity  for  flight  at  length  arises,  for  the  bird 
must  hunt  farther  afield  in  search  of  food,  and  the  dense 
grass  impedes  its  progress.  With  its  increasing  size  and 
somewhat  awkward  gait  the  nearby  vegetation  does  not  al- 
ways offer  such  a  safe  retreat  as  before;  so  the  wing  grows 
and  with  it  the  feathers  for  flight;  and  the  flight,  though 
never  strong,  serves  its  purpose  well. 

Thus  in  the  development  of  the  jacana,  from  hatching 
to  maturity,  there  are  two  significant  phases :  the  first,  where 
the  chick  is  practically  wingless;  the  second,  where  the 
wings  play  their  functional  part.  Here  again  Nature's  hand 
is  apparent  and  because  of  environment,  color,  habits,  need 
for  strong  legs  and  apparent  lack  of  use  for  wings,  these 
members  remain  small  and  weak  through  the  earlier  stages, 
and  strengthen  later  only  as  need  requires. 

THE  WING 

The  accompanying  curve,  (Fig.  101  ) ,  is  drawn  to  show 
the  variations  that  take  place  in  the  three  constituent  see:- 


306         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

HJya : : : :  eifcsa : 


FIG  .101.     DIAGRAM  OF  ONTOGENETIC  VARIATIONS  OF  THE  WING  OF  JACANA 

ments  of  the  wing  during  the  development  of  the  chick.  The 
wing  of  the  mature  bird  is  this  time  used  as  a  constant  to 
which  those  of  immature  stages  are  proportionally  raised,  so 
that  in  every  case  their  wings  equal  those  of  the  adult  in  total 
length.  Thus  if  the  embryonic  wing  equalled  the  parent  in 
actual  size,  the  relative  proportions  of  its  segments  would 
be  as  indicated  in  the  curve. 

The  curve  shows  the  directly  opposite  growth  of  the 
arm  and  pinion  throughout  the  whole  developing  period. 
The  forearm  remains  constant  and  takes  a  course  midway 
between  the  two.  That  the  growth  of  the  arm  and  pinion 
should  directly  change  about  in  the  short  period  of  time 
between  the  first  quarter  and  the  half-grown  stages  must  be 
fraught  with  some  meaning  of  which  at  present  we  have  only 
gleams  of  understanding.  The  lengthening  of  the  pinion  or 
hand  takes  place  during  the  early  days  of  the  chick,  when 
there  are  still  traces  of  ancient  climbing  habits  and  possibly 
it  may  be  numbered  as  another  disappearing  arboreal  char- 
acter. The  decrease  of  the  arm  may  also  be  placed  as  a  de- 
clining character,  for  it  finds  an  exact  parallel  in  the  young 
hoatzin,  that  living  echo  of  the  past.  The  great  decrease  of 
the  hand  in  the  half  grown  fledgling,  when  the  wing  begins 
to  prepare  for  flight,  and  the  corresponding  increase  of  the 
arm  further  parallel  the  hoatzin  and  make  one  feel  sure 
that  at  one  time  this  bird  spent  much  of  its  time  in  trees  or 
at  least  reared  its  clawed  young  there.  But  this  was  long 
ages  ago,  before  the  wing  became  a  practically  useless  ap- 
pendage to  the  young  nestling. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

NOTES    ON    THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    SMOOTH-BILLED    ANI 

(Crotophaga  ani) 

PTERYLOSIS 

The  series  of  embryos  examined  embraced  several  stages 
in  the  development  of  the  down  feathers  in  their  papillae 
state.  The  different  tracts  were  found  in  their  most  simple 
and  primitive  form,  presenting  excellent  opportunities  for 
the  study  of  their  development  in  regard  to  the  rate  of 
growth,  pigmentation  and  transition  to  the  adult  stage. 

When  the  embryo  has  passed  through  about  half  its 
incubation  period,  the  papillae  containing  future  down 
sheaths  show  scarcely  any  pigmentation.  None  of  the 
sheaths,  except  the  rectrices  and  their  upper  coverts,  as  yet 
are  pigmented.  The  rectrices,  eight  in  number,  are  divided 
into  two  groups  by  the  pygostyle,  the  sheaths  being  2  mm. 
long  and  most  heavily  pigmented  at  their  bases.  The  coverts 
are  smaller  and  less  developed,  the  central  pair  being  pig- 
mented the  most  densely. 

All  the  feather  tracts  are  pigmented  in  the  embryo  of 
about  thirty-six  hours  later  development.  The  rectrices  are 
still  the  longest,  though  the  femoral  and  humeral  tracts  have 
made  a  rapid  growth.  The  femorals  are  indicated  by  a  single 
row  of  sheaths  directly  in  line  with  the  rectrices  and  appear 
to  be  a  continuation  of  them.  Proceeding  anteriorly,  they 
divide  into  several  rows  and  form  a  triangle,  one  side  of 
which  is  parallel  to  the  spinal  tract.  The  single  row  con- 
tains more  pigment  than  the  remainder.  (Fig.  102.) 

The  spinal  tract  is  narrowly  cleft  over  the  sacral  and 
dorsal  portions,  closing  at  the  neck  and  lower  pelvis.  It 
consists  of  a  double  line  of  sheaths  which  run  together  into  a 
single  line  over  the  scapular  region,  and  where  the  cleft 


308         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 


I'huto  by  P.  O.  H. 
FIG.  102.    ANI  EMBRYO  SHOWING  PIGMENTATION  OF  THE  FEMORAL  TRACT 

closes  at  the  neck,  into  a  triple  row,  which  becomes  weaker 
as  it  approaches  the  head.  In  the  adult  this  portion  becomes 
more  pronounced  and  is  cleft  below  the  base  of  the  head  with 
a  branch  running  above  each  eye.  The  cleft  in  the  main 
tract  is  shorter  and  is  joined  over  half  the  sacral  portion, 
between  the  two  main  branches,  by  a  middle  row  of  feathers. 
The  pectoral  tract  consists  of  a  double  row  running 
parallel  to  the  upper  ventral  and  connected  with  it  by  a  few 
undeveloped  sheaths.  In  the  adult  these  feathers  are  fully 
developed  and  completely  fill  the  space  between  the  outer 
pectorals  and  the  ventrals,  thus  forming  a  complete  tract. 
To  this,  outside  and  parallel  to  the  ventral,  runs  a  single 
row  of  feathers,  which,  in  the  embryo,  is  nearly  absent  and, 
only  about  twenty-four  hours  before  hatching,  commences 
to  be  noticeable.  (Fig.  103.) 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ANI 


309 


PTERYLOSIS   OF  ANI 

6.  Adult. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF   PADS   ON   THE   WING 

The  adult  ani  has  two  small  horny  growths  on  the  wing, 
one  at  the  tip  of  the  pollux  and  one  at  the  tip  of  the  second 


FIG.  104.     WING  KNOBS  OF  THE  ANI 

a.  Twenty-four  hours  before  hatching:.     6.  Twenty-four  hours  after  hatching. 
c.  Upon  leaving  the  nest. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ANI  311 

digit.  They  are  scarcely  noticeable  in  the  adult,  but,  if  we 
examine  some  of  the  earlier  stages  in  the  growth  of  the  wing, 
we  find  them  large  and  evidently  playing  a  part  in  the  life 
cycle. 

The  first  sign  of  any  protuberance  is  found  in  the  early 
embryo  when  it  is  about  two-fifths  developed.  They  take 
the  form  of  a  fleshy  hook  on  the  pollux  and  a  fleshy  hook-like 
knob  at  the  tip  of  the  wing.  There  is  no  sign  of  an  extra 
phalanx  at  either  place.  As  the  embryonic  development 
advances  the  hook  on  the  pollux  becomes  blunter  and  round- 
er until,  twenty-four  hours  before  hatching,  it  is  a  large, 
rounded,  fleshy  knob  covering  the  whole  tip,  though  mainly 
on  the  ventral  side.  (Fig.  104a  and  b.)  The  knob  on  the 
second  digit,  also  mainly  on  the  under  side,  is  larger  and 
rounder  and  covers  the  tip.  Both  growths  have  hardened 
and  become  calloused.  After  hatching  they  grow  smaller 
and  at  the  same  time  harden  until,  at  the  time  the  bird  is 
ready  to  leave  the  nest,  they  are  very  small  and  almost  bony. 
(Fig.  104c.) 

The  fact  that  the  knobs  are  entirely  dermal,  though  of 
claw-like  appearance  in  the  young  embryo,  shows  that  they 
are  a  later  specialization  of  what  in  former  times  probably 
were  well  developed  and  functional  claws.  The  egg  shell  of 
the  ani  is  of  very  great  thickness  and  the  egg-tooth  of  the 
embryo  is  comparatively  small.  Therefore,  after  the  shell 
has  been  cracked,  some  comparatively  strong  force  must  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  it  to  pry  it  apart  for  the  escape  of 
the  little  chick.  Consequently  the  wings  and  feet  must  be 
used  for  this  purpose  after  the  manner  of  hatching  chicks 
of  the  domestic  fowl.  But,  in  this  case,  the  shell  being  much 
thicker  proportionally,  the  wings  are  especially  equipped  for 
pushing  and  prying  and  are  undoubtedly  of  much  use  in 
this  first  great  effort.  This  is  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  the 
knobs  are  larger  and  much  more  developed  at  the  time  of 
hatching  than  either  before  or  after. 


312 


TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 


FIG.  105.     DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  THIRD  DIGIT  OF  THE  ANI 
a.  Partly  developed  embryo.       6.  Twenty-four  hours  before  hatching,      c.  Adult. 

DIGITUS 

The  bone  structure  of  the  digitus  presents  several  in- 
teresting features.  Two  points  especially  stand  out  on  ac- 
count of  their  being  peculiar  to  this  bird  or  its  near  rela- 
tives. First  is  the  curious  horizontal  flattening  of  the  third 
metacarpal.  It  appears  almost  to  be  divided  into  two  bones 
running  parallel  to  each  other  and  connected  by  a  very 
thin  transparent  layer  of  bone.  At  the  proximal  end,  where 
it  is  ankylosed  to  the  second  metacarpal,  it  is  broadly  flat- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ANI  313 

tened  and  slightly  concave,  the  two  parallel  bone  centers 
clearly  showing.  Distally  it  gradually  decreases  in  width 
and  the  heavy  portions  run  together  until  just  before  con- 
nection with  the  upper  carpal,  it  narrows  suddenly  to  ex- 
treme thinness  so  that  it  is  flattened  vertically  at  this  point. 

A  study  of  the  embryonic  wing  shows  the  metacarpal 
in  question  to  be  a  strong,  though  somewhat  smaller  bone 
than  the  one  above  it.  It  is  round  and  shows  no  sign  of  flat- 
tening. Upon  examining  an  older  embryo  I  found  that, 
when  the  bone  begins  to  ossify,  the  ossification  is  weaker 
above  and  stronger  at  the  sides.  The  endochondral  bone 
takes  the  form  of  a  scroll  with  the  fissures  running  to  the  right 
at  the  distal  end.  After  the  bird  hatches  and  ossification  of 
the  shaft  approaches  completion,  the  bone  still  remains 
rounded,  though  the  metacarpal  has  commenced  to  broaden 
slightly  and  to  become  thinner  at  the  time  the  bird  leaves  the 
nest.  When  the  adult  state  is  attained  we  find  the  bone 
flattened  as  above  described. 

The  second  and  more  interesting  point  is  the  strange 
T-shaped  form  of  the  third  digit.  It  really  is  composed  of 
two  elements  at  an  early  embryonic  stage.  The  stem  is  sep- 
arate from  the  cross  piece.  It  is  an  irregular  rounded  body 
resting  against  the  cross  piece,  but  not  a  part  of  it,  as  shown 
by  its  dividing  line.  It  appears  in  the  embryo,  twenty-four 
hours  before  hatching  and  long  after  ossification  has  set  in, 
as  a  rounded  knob  partly  ankylosed  to  the  main  digit.  The 
ankylosis  is  complete  at  hatching  time,  but  actual  ossification 
does  not  commence  until  the  bird  is  several  hours  old.  Up 
to  this  time  it  has  only  been  in  a  weak  cartilaginous  state. 
(Fig.  105.) 

Other  evidence  of  a  fourth  digit  has  been  found  in  the 
early  embryos  of  a  tern  and  the  hoatzin,  while  W.  K.  Parker, 
in  his  two  papers,  "Fowl's  Wing"  *  and  "Morphology  of 
Opisthocomus," 2  states  that  there  is  a  projection  on  the 

1Phil.  Trans.  Zool.  Soc.,  London,  1888. 

2  Trans.  Zool.  Soc.,  London,  1895,  pp.  69-71. 


314         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

proximal  portion  of  the  third  digit  which  may  be  the  rudi- 
ment of  a  fourth.  In  examining  this  bone  in  an  embryonic 
king  vulture,  I  found,  as  in  the  ani,  that  there  is  a  partially 
free  protuberance  near  its  proximal  end.  Unfortunately, 
however,  having  no  younger  embryo,  I  cannot  say  if  the 
protuberance  is  ever  entirely  separate  in  this  bird. 

All  things  considered  it  would  seem,  in  the  ani,  as  if  this 
projection  is  the  remnant  of  a  fourth  digit  or  one  of  its  car- 
pals  that  at  one  time  was  separate,  but  now  has  become  at- 
tached to  the  third.  That  it  is  not  a  later  specialization  of  the 
third  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  only  at  a  fairly  early  embry- 
onic stage  is  it  at  all  free.  If  it  were  a  specialization,  it 
never  would  have  been  entirely  so. 

On  the  other  hand,  figuring  that  the  stem  of  the  T  is 
the  remnant  of  a  fourth  digit  it  would  seem  as  if  there  might 
be  some  significance  attached  to  the  flattening  and  near  di- 
vision of  the  third  metacarpal.  This  does  not  seem  to  be 
true,  however,  as  up  to  the  time  the  chick  is  several  weeks 
old,  the  bone  remains  round  and  does  not  really  commence 
to  flatten  until  the  bird  is  able  to  fly.  It  is  a  recent  specializa- 
tion caused,  possibly,  by  some  individual  movement  of  the 
wing  and  does  not  have  any  direct  bearing  on  the  irregular 
structure  of  the  third  digit. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  WING 

A  significant  fact  about  the  wing  is  the  rate  of  growth 
of  the  various  elements  of  the  hand.  The  hand  is  divided 
into  two  component  parts,  metacarpus  and  digitus.  Com- 
pared with  the  human  hand,  the  metacarpus  represents  the 
palm,  and  the  digitus,  the  thumb,  first  and  second  fingers, 
or  as  some  will  have  it — the  first,  second  and  third  fingers. 
Let  us  call  the  parts  of  the  wing  in  question  the  palm  and 
the  index. 

Figure  106a  is  a  curve  drawn  to  represent  the  growth  of 
these  parts  starting  with  the  half  grown  embryo.  The  length 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ANI  315 

of  the  adult  wing  is  used  as  a  constant  of  measure  and  all 
other  lengths  are  proportionally  increased  to  it. 

We  see,  from  the  curve,  that,  in  the  half-developed 
embryo,  the  palm  is  nearly  twice  as  long  as  the  index.  A 
few  days  later  the  rate  of  the  index  growth  has  increased  so 
that  now  it  is  about  three-quarters  as  long  as  the  palm. 
Twenty-four  hours  before  hatching  they  again  diverge  and 
the  palm  makes  the  more  rapid  growth.  Forty-eight  hours 
later,  or  twenty-four  hours  after  hatching,  the  index,  having 
increased  its  rate  of  growth,  is  practically  the  same  length 
as  the  palm.  From  now  on  they  continue  to  grow  evenly 
until  the  adult  stage  is  reached. 

If  embryonic  characters  are  any  indication  of  charac- 
ters of  past  ages,  the  early  preponderance  of  the  palm  would 
indicate  that  at  some  time  it  played  a  more  important  part 
than  it  does  now.  A  glance  at  archaeopteryx  would  make 
it  appear  as  if  this  might  be  the  case,  for  that  ancient  rep- 
tile-bird bore  most  of  the  primaries  on  its  palm.  Archaeop- 
teryx, however,  cannot  be  taken  as  a  criterion,  for  it  was  as 
highly  specialized  along  certain  lines  as  our  present  day  birds 
and  may  not  necessarily  have  been  the  true  ancestral  type  of 
the  modern  bird.  The  probabilities  are  that  the  ancestral 
ani  had  a  longer  metacarpus  than  the  modern  representative, 
which  was  a  survival  of  the  long  metacarpals  of  the  lizard, 
and  possibly  it  held  more  remiges  than  at  the  present  day. 

Figure  106b  is  a  curve  of  the  growth  of  the  wing  parts, 
all  measurements  being  increased  to  adult  size  as  before.  The 
humerus  makes  a  rapid  growth  until  near  hatching  time  when 
it  suddenly  changes  to  comparative  slowness,  and  laterx  to 
fair  rapidity,  which  keeps  up  until  adult.  The  ulna  at  first 
grows  rapidly  at  the  same  rate  as  the  humerus,  but,  after 
the  embryo  is  half  developed,  is  delayed  until  after  hatching. 
Then  it  grows  approximately  at  the  same  rate  as  the  hu- 
merus. The  pinion  is  delayed,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the 
embryo  until  it  is  about  three-fifths  developed.  Its  rate  of 
growth  takes  an  intermediate  path  between  the  other  two 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ANI  317 

until  soon  after  hatching  and  then  parallels  them  to  the  time 
when  the  bird  is  able  to  leave  the  nest.  Both  ulna  and  pin- 
ion then  show  a  slight  decrease  in  growth  as  compared  with 
the  humerus. 

A  curious  condition  exists  just  before  and  after  the 
chicks  emerge  from  their  shells.  A  few  hours  before,  the 
growth  of  the  three  bones  becomes  retarded  and  remains  so 
until  at  least  twenty-four  hours  after  hatching.  Then  they 
again  commence  to  grow  rapidly.  The  retardation  is  prob- 
ably due  to  the  immense  amount  of  energy  used  up  by  the 
chick  in  forcing  its  way  out  of  the  shell.  Its  wings  play  an 
important  part  in  this  operation  and  are  constantly  in  use, 
thus  consuming  the  energy  which  otherwise  would  have  been 
applied  to  their  growth.  The  slight  retardation  of  the  ulna 
and  pinion  after  the  young  bird  leaves  the  nest  is  due  to  the 
more  violent  use  they  are  put  to  in  flying — especially  the 
pinion — and  possibly  to  the  fact  that  these  bones  hold  the 
chief  flight  feathers,  which  make  a  stronger  growth  than  any 
others  on  the  humerus.  To  prove  the  former  statement  I 
kept  a  young  ani,  taken  just  upon  leaving  the  nest,  in  close 
confinement  for  over  a  month,  where  he  could  not  use  his 
wings.  At  the  end  of  that  time  the  ulna  growth  remained 
about  the  same,  but  the  pinion  had  increased  at  exactly  the 
same  rate  that  it  had  been  growing,  up  to  the  time  the  bird 
was  able  to  leave  the  nest.  It  was  longer  in  actual  measure- 
ment than  in  the  adult.  The  humerus,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  slightly  retarded. 

Another  point  that  may  be  worth  touching  upon  is  the 
opposite  or  alternate  rate  of  growth  of  the  ulna  and  pinion 
in  the  embryonic  stages.  The  ulna  slackens  when  the  pinion 
makes  a  rapid  growth.  Then  seeming  somehow  to  have 
gained  the  ascendency,  it  commences  a  rapid  growth,  the 
pinion  immediately  decreasing  its  rate  in  the  same  propor- 
tion. They  both  decrease,  about  twenty-four  hours  before 
hatching,  when  the  delayed  stage  for  the  whole  wing  com- 
mences. There  seems  to  be  a  definite  connection  between 


318 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


the  two,  wherein  the  growth  of  one  detracts  from  the  growth 
of  the  other  and  definite  stages  seem  to  have  been  arranged 
for  each  to  lengthen,  so  that,  in  the  end,  one  will  not  far 
outdistance  the  other. 

FEMUR 

In  the  embryo  the  femur  is  proportionally  much  strong- 
er than  in  the  adult.  Its  diameter  is  18  per  cent  of  its  length, 
whereas  in  the  adult,  it  is  less  than  8  per 
per  cent.  As  the  embryo  develops,  the 
bone  grows  thinner,  but  is  large  even  in 
the  fledgling  and  for  several  weeks  after 
the  bird  leaves  the  nest. 

TIBIO-TARSUS 

The  ossification  center  of  the  shaft  is, 
as  usual,  in  the  middle  of  the  bone  and 
works  out  in  both  directions.  The  ridges 
are  drawn  together  at  this  point  and  form 
a  kind  of  narrow  waist,  which  makes  it 
appear  as  if  the  bone  were  composed  of 
two  elements  grown  together.  (Fig.  107.) 
At  the  upper  end  the  ossification  divides 
on  the  inner  side  and  forms  two  points 
like  the  points  of  a  writing  pen.  At  the 
distal  end  it  is  greatly  expanded  with  a 
deep  groove  on  the  upper  side.  This  is 
the  groove  between  the  two  distal  con- 
dyles  and,  in  the  embryo,  commences  very 
near  the  middle  of  the  bone  shaft.  Both 
condyles  are  long  and  much  bent  back. 
The  embryonic  fibula  is  longer  and  rath- 
er thicker  than  in  the  adult.  It  is  37 
per  cent  as  long  as  the  tibia,  while  in  the 
adult  the  proportion  is  only  25  per  cent. 


TIBIA 


FIG.  107. 

OSSIFICATION  OF  THE 

TIBIO-TARSUS  OF 

THE  ANI 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ANI  319 

TARSO-  METATARSUS 

The  mature  tarso-metatarsus  is  curiously  ridged  and 
grooved,  the  fourth  metatarsal  being  flattened  so  as  to  form 
a  ridge  above  the  other  bones.  The  second  metatarsal  is 
much  flattened  and  seems  almost  to  be  separated  from  the 
others,  being  connected,  particularly  on  the  proximal  half, 
only  by  a  thin,  transparent  sheet  of  bone.  In  the  embryo, 
however,  this  is  not  true.  As  late  as  the  period  when  the 
bird  leaves  the  nest  all  the  metatarsals,  though  totally  fused, 
are  still  rounded.  There  is  just  a  slight  broadening  of  the 
bones  and  a  commencement  of  the  grooves,  with  no  flattening 
of  the  fourth  metatarsal. 

BILL 

The  exaggerated  development  of  the  culmen  takes 
place  only  after  the  fledgling  has  left  the  nest.  In  the  newly 
hatched  chick,  the  bill  is  short  and  swollen,  but  in  all  respects 
typically  cuckoo-like.  The  culmen  is  angled  instead  of 
curved,  but  as  the  bird  grows  older  the  angles  decrease  and 
curves  take  their  place.  The  commissure  is  greatly  curved 
until  the  culmen  begins  to  ridge  up  and  then  straightens  as 
the  ridge  forms.  The  lower  mandible  is  much  shorter  than 
the  upper  and  the  gonys  is  narrow  and  very  angular.  The 
projecting  hook  of  the  upper  mandible  gives  the  young  bird 
a  rather  hawk-like  appearance.  The  gonys  lengthens  very 
slowly,  so  that  at  least  three  months  pass  after  flying  before 
the  bird  attains  its  full  culmen  ridge  and  its  wide  flat  gonys, 
which  pushes  forward  so  as  almost  to  fill  the  notch  caused 
by  the  curved  tip  of  the  upper  mandible. 


FIG.  108.     DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  BILL  OF  THE  ANI 
.  Half  developed  embryo.  6.  Twenty-four  hours  before  hatching-. 


c.   Twenty-four  hours  after  hatching. 
e.  Six  weeks  after  leaving  nest. 


d.  Just  able  to  leave  the  nest. 
f.   Adult. 


CHAPTER  XX 

NOTES  ON   A  FEW  EMBRYOS 

I 
A    NEARLY    MATURED    EMBRYO    OF    THE    DUSKY    NIGHTHAWK 

Caprimulgus  nigrescens  ( Cab. ) 

PTERYLOSIS 

The  several  feather  tracts  are  marked  by  long  violet- 
brown  down  sheaths.  The  sheaths  of  the  wing,  tail,  tarsus 
and  femoral  tracts  are  more  advanced  than  the  rest,  averag- 
ing about  4.5  mm.  in  length,  and  are  more  thickly  clustered 
than  at  any  other  place  on  the  body.  The  rectrices  with  their 
upper  and  under  coverts  are  well  developed  and  long.  The 
femoral  tracts  consist  of  several  rows  of  long  sheaths  which 
grow  close  together  and  make  a  large  patch.  These,  together 
with  the  rectrices  and  their  coverts  give  the  embryo  a  very 
heavily  feathered  appearance  on  the  posterior  portion.  The 
feathering  of  the  leg  and  the  especially  heavy  feathering  of 
the  tarsus,  which  is  feathered  in  front  with  a  thick  tuft  of 
sheaths  that  extends  to  the  base  of  the  third  toe  so  that  the 
tips  of  the  sheaths  extend  past  the  second  joint,  add  to  the 
heavy  posterior  coating.  (Fig.  109.) 

The  wing  sheaths  are  equally  as  long  and  as  thickly 
patterned  as  the  others.  Those  on  the  forearm  in  particular 
are  very  numerous,  the  secondaries  being  buried  beneath  a 
thick  mass  of  coverts,  which,  though  the  rows  are  a  trifle  ir- 
regular and  rather  indiscriminately  placed,  are  all  heavily 
represented.  The  primaries  have  single  coverts  with  a  sparse 
scattering  of  sheaths  above. 

The  dorsal  tract  is  at  no  point  very  dense.  Over  the 
pelvis  it  consists  of  a  triple  row  of  rather  closely  placed 
sheaths.  Above  the  sacral  region  the  middle  row  disappears 


Photo  by  P.  (J.  H. 


FIG.  109.    EMBRYO  OF  THE  DUSKY  NIGHTHAWK 


NOTES  ON  EMBRYOS  323 

and  the  two  outer  rows  diverge  slightly  to  come  together  at 
the  base  of  the  neck,  where  they  continue  parallel  to  the  head. 

The  inferior  tracts  consist  of  two  thick  rows  of  sheaths 
extending  along  either  side  of  the  abdomen,  which  come  to- 
gether above  the  furcula.  A  dense  patch  fills  the  apterium 
over  the  lower  sternum  and  upper  abdomen. 

The  head  is  more  or  less  regularly  covered  with  rows 
which  extend  to  and  surround  the  nostrils.  The  eye  is  en- 
circled by  a  widely  separated  double  row  of  long  feathers 
which  connect  with  the  nostril  ring  by  a  single  row,  and  the 
eyelid  is  fringed  with  short  sheaths.  From  the  nostrils,  run- 
ning along  the  groove  above  the  eye,  is  a  double  row,  and 
midway  between  the  eyes  a  triple  line  which  extends  straight 
back  until  just  in  front  of  the  parietal  region,  where  the  outer 
lines  diverge  and  gradually  round  together  again  to  enter 
the  spinal  tract.  The  middle  line  passes  into  the  open  space 
thus  formed,  where  two  other  rows  run  parallel  with  it  to 
the  spinal  tract.  A  single  line  runs  behind  the  auditory  aper- 
ture and  joins  the  ventral  tract.  The  aperture  itself  is  mar- 
gined with  short  feathers.  (Fig.  110.) 


o  oooo 
oooooooooooooooooo  oooooooooooo  oVo 


FIG.  110.    HEAD  PTERYLOSIS  OF  AN  EMBRYO  DUSKY  NIGHTHAWK 


324         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 


FIG.  111.     DEVELOPMENT  OF  BILL  OF  THE  DUSKY  NIGHTHAWK 
a.  Embryo.  6.  Adult. 


EXTERNAL   CHARACTERS 

The  embryo  has  the  general  appearance  of  being  tufted 
and  spotted  with  down  sheaths.  The  feathering  of  the  head, 
wings  and  feet,  and  the  curious  shape  of  the  bill  give  it  an 
individuality  of  its  own.  The  auditory  apertures  are  large, 
pear-shaped  and  very  close  to  the  gape,  the  knob-like  nos- 
trils being  placed  rather  near  the  tip  of  the  upper  mandible, 
which,  with  its  rounded  "egg-tooth"  and  curved  end,  looks 
very  different  from  that  of  its  parent.  The  bill  is  more  com- 
pressed than  depressed  and  its  frontal  half  is  very  narrow 
with  the  gape  extending  below  the  center  of  the  eye.  The 
lower  mandible  is  enlarged  at  the  tip,  but  there  is  no  lower 
"egg-tooth"  as  in  pigeons. 

The  nasal  apertures  are  round  and  point  directly  out- 
ward. They  are  placed  in  the  lower  portion  of  large,  round- 
ed, fleshy  protuberances  which  arise  on  either  side  of  the  man- 
dible. Midway  between  the  nostril  and  the  tip  of  the  bill 
is  a  patch  of  black  pigment  which  is  directly  above  a  similar 
spot  on  the  lower  mandible.  The  upper  mandible  also  is 
slightly  pigmented  along  its  cutting  edge. 

From  the  above  it  may  be  gathered  that  the  embryonic 
bill  varies  much  in  external  characters  from  the  adult.  It  is 
much  narrower,  much  more  compressed  and  the  gape  is  not 
so  deep.  The  nostrils  are  round,  protrude,  and  are  fringed 


NOTES  ON   EMBRYOS  325 

with  down  sheaths,  instead  of  being  flattened  with  the  pro- 
tuberance reduced.  There  is  no  trace  of  feathers  about  them 
in  the  adult.  (Fig.  111.) 

The  feathering  of  the  tarsus  is  much  heavier  than  in  the 
adult,  this  area,  in  the  embryo,  being  one  of  the  most  heav- 
ily feathered  portions  of  the  body.  The  scutation  of  the  hind 
tarsus  is  very  sharply  defined,  the  scutes  being  clear  cut  and 
overlapping  one  another  like  fish  scales. 

The  wing  has  a  claw  on  the  thumb  and  one  at  the  tip. 
Both  claws  are  long  and  well  developed.  In  this  character 
the  embryo  differs  entirely  from  the  adult  which,  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  determine,  is  entirely  without  claws. 

II 

Guiana  Kiskadee  Pitangns  sulphuratus  sulphuratus  (Linn.) 

PTERYLOSIS 

The  first  signs  of  any  pigmentation  of  the  feather  pa- 
pillae in  the  embryonic  stages  may  be  found  when  the  em- 
bryo is  about  three-fifths  developed.  The  longest  papillae 
belong  to  the  dorsal  tract,  though  only  the  posterior  portion 
of  this  shows.  Commencing  in  the  pre-sacral  region  it  imme- 
diately divides  into  two  single  rows  of  sheaths  which  follow 
the  line  of  the  ilia  and  come  together  in  the  post-sacral 
region  near  the  naked  eurypygium.  These  sheaths  are  also 
the  longest  on  the  freshly  hatched  bird  and  reach  a  length 
of  15  mm.,  while  the  remainder  of  the  tract  is  represented 
only  by  undeveloped  papillae.  The  sacral  space  is  narrowed 
down  to  a  narrow  cleft. 

What  at  first  appear  to  be  rectrices  in  the  earlier  embryo 
are  really  the  highly  pigmented  upper  coverts.  The  rectrices 
are  present  only  as  mere  shadows  of  papillae.  In  the  hatch- 
ing bird  the  upper  coverts  are  very  long  while  the  rectrice 
sheaths  are  just  beginning  to  peep  forth.  As  the  bird  grows 
older,  however,  the  rectrices  grow  rapidly  and  soon  overtake 
their  coverts. 


326         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

A  third  tract  of  large  development  is  the  femoral  tract. 
Here  the  sheaths  are  nearly  as  long  as  those  of  the  spinal 
tract  and  pigmented.  A  slight  darkening  and  lengthening 
of  the  scapular  tracts  may  be  observed  in  the  young  embryo 
and  there  are  a  few  long  sheaths  in  the  occipital  region  which, 
in  the  later  period  of  hatching,  become  very  long  and  promi- 
nent. In  the  space  between  the  eyes  there  are  two  single 
rows  of  long,  dark  sheaths  running  along  the  eye  grooves. 
All  inferior  tracts  are  indicated  only  by  papillae,  there  being 
no  noticeable  pigmentation  or  lengthening. 

Ill 

Varied   Streaked  Flycatcher  Empidonomus  varius  varius 
(Vieillot) 

PTERYLOSIS 

Unfortunately  I  have  been  able  to  secure  only  two  em- 
bryos of  this  bird,  both  of  which  are  about  half  developed, 
though  one  is  apparently  a  few  hours  more  advanced  than 
the  other.  Only  small  papillae  are  present,  there  as  yet  be- 
ing no  sign  of  pigmentation.  Some  of  the  papillae,  how- 
ever, are  more  prominent  than  others,  and,  from  the  exam- 
ination of  a  newly  hatched  chick,  I  find  that  they  are  the 
ones  that  develop  into  the  main  down  sheaths. 

The  positions  of  the  papillae  tracts  are  very  similar  to 
those  of  Pitangus  sulphuratus  of  a  slightly  more  advanced 
stage,  except  in  regard  to  the  growth  of  the  rectrices.  In 
the  present  bird  these  papillae  may  be  seen  in  their  proper 
place  with  a  corresponding  row  of  coverts  above,  both  show- 
ing the  tiny  specks  at  their  tips  which  are  the  first  indica- 
tion of  pigmentation.  The  rectrices,  themselves,  are  much 
larger  than  their  coverts.  Directly  the  opposite  is  the  case 
of  P.  sulphuratus  in  which  the  coverts  develop  first,  attain- 
ing a  good  length  and  a  dark  pigmentation  before  the  true 
rectrices  appear  plainly  as  papillae.  In  the  young  chick  of 


NOTES  ON  EMBRYOS 


327 


E,  varius,  however,  we  find  that,  like  the  other  species,  the 
coverts  exceed  the  rectrices  in  length  and  development, 
though  the  latter  are  present  and  more  advanced  than  in  the 
other. 

The  sacral  cleft  of  the  spinal  tract  is  slightly  wider  and 
longer  in  E.  varius  and  extends  beyond  the  sacral  region  for- 
ward into  the  scapular  area.  In  the  newly-hatched  bird  the 
difference  is  a  little  more  marked,  the  arms  of  the  tract  being 
narrower  than  P.  sulphur atus.  In  other  particulars  the 
pterylosis  of  the  two  birds  is  similar. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

NESTING   HABITS   OF  THE  GREY-BREASTED   MARTIN 

Progne  chalybea      (Gmel.) 

English : 
Grey-breasted  Martin. 

Portuguese : 
Andorinha  grande. 

Dutch: 
Gewone   Witbuik   Purper-Zwaluwen. 

French : 
Martins  a'  ventre  blanc. 

A  small  bird  about  6  inches  in  length.  Similar  in  size  to  Progne 
subis.  The  male  is  a  deep  purple  blue  above,  grey  on  the  throat  and 
breast,  shading  to  white  beneath.  The  female  is  similar  with  the  back 
duller.  The  young  are  duller  than  the  females,  the  back  being  a  decided 
sooty  grey  or  black.  The  young  males,  in  the  second  year,  resemble 
the  adult  females. 

Range:  Southern  Mexico  southward  through  Central  America  and 
South  America  to  Peru,  Bolivia  and  southern  Brazil ;  island  of  Trinidad. 


In  all  civilized  districts  from  Rio  northward  this  is  the 
first  bird  to  greet  the  traveler.  As  the  steamer  warps  up 
to  the  pier  there  are  always  a  few  perched  on  the  ridge  of  a 
nearby  roof  or  garrulously  hovering  over  the  deck.  Pro- 
ceeding inland  by  water  or  on  foot  one  will  see  them  always 
present,  where  human  habitations  exist. 

The  grey-breasted  martins,  like  their  relatives  of  the 
north,  thrive  wherever  there  is  a  house  and  a  clearing.  They 
are  one  of  the  many  birds  that  have  adapted  themselves  to 
the  advances  of  civilization  and,  like  others,  find  the  new  con- 
ditions congenial.  They  are  extremely  tame  and  unafraid 
and  because  of  this  courage  and  pugnacity  they  are  one  of 
the  most  useful  birds  that  gather  about  the  homestead.  No 
low  flying  hawk  will  for  long  withstand  the  vicious  onslaughts 


GREY    BREASTED    MARTINS  329 

of  the  many  martins  that  gather  about  him.  Thus  the  life 
of  many  a  seed-eating  finch  and  caterpillar-destroying  wren 
has  been  preserved. 

The  windows  of  Kalacoon  house  always  remained  open 
and  soon  after  our  arrival  several  martins  took  advantage  of 
this  to  roost  on  the  rafters  over  our  heads,  entering  through 
a  window  close  beneath  the  peak  of  the  roof.  On  the, rare 
occasions  when  it  had  to  be  closed  on  account  of  the  rain 
which  poured  through  in  gusts,  the  birds  gathered  outside 
in  numbers,  some  on  the  sill  and  others  on  the  eaves  above, 
and  tried  to  express  their  troubles  in  a  loud  bubbling  and 
chatter.  Though  there  were  other  open  windows  nearby, 
they  never  used  them,  but  always,  if  their  own  private  en- 
trance were  closed,  sought  other  roosting  places  for  the  night. 
They  roosted  in  pairs  and  never  allowed  a  third  to  encroach 
upon  what  they  considered  their  own  territory. 

Later  on,  near  the  end  of  March — the  middle  of  the 
short  dry  season — mating  instincts  became  uppermost  and 
the  martins  commenced  to  consider  sites  for  their  nests.  Un- 
fortunately for  us,  one  pair  decided  that  their  roosting  place 
on  the  rafters  was  an  ideal  situation;  so  for  the  next  few 
weeks  there  was  a  continual  shower  of  sticks  and  straws  from 
above.  Fortunately  they  gave  it  up  after  a  month  of  vain 
attempt  and  sought  a  new  spot. 

A  small  box  with  four  compartments  had  been  erected 
a  short  time  before,  on  a  pole,  with  the  hope  that  some  of 
the  birds  would  take  advantage  of  it.  Immediately  a  pair 
of  palm  tanagers  took  possession.  This  was  too  much  for 
our  pair  of  martins,  which  at  once — incited  by  jealousy  and 
need  for  a  new  home — drove  away  the  tanagers  and  appro- 
priated the  partially  completed  nest  as  their  own.  The  occu- 
pation was  not  accomplished,  however,  without  many  a 
scuffle  with  the  original  tenants  and  other  pairs  of  martins 
who  had  nesting  ideas  of  their  own.  The  building  did  not 
commence  immediately  after  possession  had  been  obtained, 
but,  either  to  make  sure  that  the  new  house  was  safe — it 


330         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

swayed  very  much  in  the  wind — or  more  firmly  to  establish 
their  right,  it  was  well  on  toward  the  middle  of  May  before 
the  mother  laid  her  first  egg. 

In  the  meantime  other  pairs  had  commenced  to  build, 
selecting  various  portions  of  the  huge  beams  that  acted  as 
plates  for  Kalacoon  house.  The  nests  were  composed  of 
sticks,  straws,  dried  grass,  string,  cloth  and  anything  that 
would  act  as  building  material.  They  were  placed  back  from 
the  edge  of  the  beam  usually  in  a  corner  next  to  a  floor  joist. 
The  spot,  where  the  birds  had  been  regularly  roosting,  was 
usually  selected  for  the  home  site,  for  when  they  find  an  ideal 
location  they  remain  there  all  their  lives,  or  at  least  until 
conditions  change.  Unlike  the  purple  martin,  the  too  near 
company  of  others  was  not  desired  and  it  went  hard  with  the 
individual  who  inadvertently  overstepped  his  neighbor's  ter- 
ritory. In  this  respect  they  resembled  some  human  beings. 

The  Kalacoon  martins  commenced  to  lay  about  the  first 
of  April.  Every  bird  had  been  busy  for  the  two  preceding- 
weeks  collecting  material,  courting,  and  fighting.  Sometimes 
a  dozen  or  more  would  gather  on  the  ground  in  front  of  the 
house  and  sort  over  the  little  twigs  and  dried  grass  blades 
lying  there.  This  always  was  attended  with  perfect  harmony 
until  two  birds  would  decide  that  they  both  liked  the  same 
stick.  They  resorted  then  to  force  in  the  dispute  that  fol- 
lowed, and  the  fight  would  go  on  up  in  the  air  or  down  on  the 
ground,  until  both  were  exhausted.  In  the  meantime  the 
object  of  their  differences  was  usually  spirited  away  by  a 
third  party.  At  any  rate  they  always  forgot  what  they  were 
fighting  about  and  never  returned  to  the  spot  to  look  for  it. 
Again,  one  would  be  sitting  alone,  awaiting  her  mate  by  the 
prospective  nest.  Suddenly,  after  many  beautiful  evolutions 
in  the  air,  he  would  join  her,  and  their  admiration  for  one 
another  was  shown  by  wide  open  bills  and  a  perfect  babble 
of  warbles.  They  would  sit  thus  for  a  few  moments  each 
with  its  mouth  open,  or  they  snapped  bills  at  imaginary  in- 
sects, as  if  one  were  urging  the  other  to  feed  it.  Then  each 


GREY   BREASTED    MARTINS  331 

would  seek  to  relieve  its  feelings  in  flight,  only  to  return  later 
to  repeat  the  whole  performance. 

After  eight  or  ten  days  of  repeated  journeys  to  and 
from  the  gathering  grounds,  the  bulky  nests  were  about  fin- 
ished and  the  females  made  ready  for  their  household  duties. 
The  several  homes  beneath  the  house  soon  held  their  full 
quota  of  little  white  eggs.  Two  held  three  and  another  five. 
During  the  period  of  incubation,  which  lasted  from  fifteen 
to  sixteen  days,  the  male  showed  much  solicitude  for  his  mate. 
He  sat  for  hours  by  her  side  near  the  nest  and  chirped  and 
twittered  in  low  sweet  tones  as  if  striving  to  enliven  the  mo- 
notony of  her  somewhat  irksome  position.  Several  times 
each  day,  though  only  for  a  few  minutes,  she  took  journeys 
in  search  of  food. 

At  hatching  time  a  busy  season  commenced  for  both 
birds.  The  business  of  carrying  food  to  the  youngsters  went 
on  all  day  long,  from  early  morning  till  late  at  night.  The 
little  flesh  colored  babies  with  tight  shut  eyes  and  gaping 
mouths  needed  much  looking  after,  for  their  demands  for 
food  never  abated.  After  every  third  or  fourth  trip,  one  of 
the  parents  cleaned  nest  with  its  bill,  carrying  away  the  ex- 
crement incased  in  its  thin  shiny  sack,  to  drop  it  at  a  safe 
distance  from  the  home  so  that  the  prowling  marauder 
might  find  no  tell-tale  evidence.  (Fig.  112.) 

When  a  week  old,  the  nestlings  presented  a  curious  ap- 
pearance with  their  half-open  eyes,  vast  stomachs,  and  shin- 
ing transparent  skin  thickly  studded  with  the  black- sheaths 
of  young  feathers — for  there  is  no  down  until  about  the  tenth 
day,  when  the  feather  sheaths  break.  Their  food  consisted 
entirely  of  insects — flying  ants,  termites,  ant-lions  and  drag- 
on-flies. Sometimes  a  dragon-fly  was  brought  of  too  large 
dimensions  to  be  easily  swallowed  whole.  Then  the  wings 
were  severed,  one  by  one,  from  the  body,  which  was  well 
crushed  by  the  bill  of  the  parent.  The  youngster  would  seize 
it  fiercely  and  swallow  it  with  incredible  rapidity,  undergoing 


332         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  by  P.  G.  II. 
FIG.  11?.     GREY-BREASTED   MARTIN,   THREE   DAYS   OLD 

terrible  contortions,  gasping  and  choking  for  several  minutes 
after  it  had  gone  down. 

The  young  birds  were  lined  up  at  the  edge  of  the  beam, 
twenty-two  days  after  hatching,  ready  to  begin  their  trials 
of  flight.  They  returned  to  their  nests  for  a  few  nights  and 
then,  having  partly  learned  to  care  for  themselves,  departed 
elsewhere  to  roost.  Every  morning,  together  with  others 
that  had  been  reared  in  less  auspicious  places,  they  gathered 
on  the  roof  of  the  house  with  their  parents.  Invariably  at 
6:1.5,  at  a  seemingly  preconceived  signal,  they  launched  forth 
into  the  air  with  one  great  rush  and  chatter,  swooping  and 
sailing  about  the  house  for  a  few  minutes  before  departing 
over  the  bush  to  seek  their  morning  meal. 

The  art  of  catching  their  meal  did  not  come  quite  so 
easily  as  the  first  flights.  They  had  to  be  fed  for  a  week 


GREY    BREASTED    MARTINS  333 

or  more  after  they  were  dodging  and  darting  about  in  the 
air,  and  some  even  clamored  for  food  after  their  parents 
were  nesting  again.  The  old  birds  at  first  perched  beside 
their  offspring,  to  feed  them,  but  soon — the  young  birds, 
learning  to  grasp  the  insect  with  their  bills,  instead  of  hav- 
ing it  crammed  down  their  throats — hovered « above  and 
forced  the  young  to  reach  up  to  seize  it  when  they  passed 
by.  Becoming  expert  in  this  and  being  greedy,  the  young- 
sters quickly  learned  to  sally  forth  to  meet  their  parents  and 
take  the  food  from  them  in  the  air.  It  gradually  dawned 
upon  them,  as  time  went  on,  that  they  might  secure  their 
food  themselves,  as  well  as  from  their  parents.  But  this  came 
only  after  the  elders  had  dropped  one  or  two  insects  which 
made  the  youngsters  scramble  to  secure  them  before  they 
escaped. 

A  few  days  later  the  old  birds  were  nesting  again. 

To  return  to  the  martins  of  the  bird-house:  the  young 
hatched,  they  were  cared  for  in  the  orthodox  fashion.  The 
entrance  to  their  home  was  a  round  opening  about  two  inches 
in  diameter.  A  cross  stick,  that  projected  a  foot  or  more 
beyond  the  side  of  the  box,  was  nailed  there,  about  an  inch 
below,  for  a  perch. 

I  watched  for  the  three  little  ones  to  make  their  first 
appointed  trip  into  the  air  on  the  twenty-second  day.  One 
finally  perched  in  the  doorway  and  looked  about  in  a  dazed 
fashion  at  this  new  world  never  before  discovered.  Casting 
a  look  downward,  he  decided  that  it  was  beyond  his  ability  to 
ever  trust  himself  to  the  great  emptiness  beneath.  It  was  far 
too  perilous  to  attempt  the  scramble  and  climb  that  were 
necessary  to  gain  the  outer  perch.  So  there  he  remained, 
while  his  two  brothers  or  sisters  vainly  pushed  and  squeezed 
to  get  a  glimpse,  too. 

The  parents  hovered  about,  chirping  and  urging  him  to 
chance  it,  but  he  remained  immovably  placed  and  answered 
all  entreaties  with  weak  little  noises.  They  gave  it  up  and 
brought  food.  When  he  had  received  a  full  share,  they  tried 


334 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  by  IV.  H. 


FIG.  113.    NESTING  BOX  OF  GREY-BREASTED  MARTINS 

to  push  him  back  into  the  nest,  so  as  to  make  room  for  an- 
other, but  he  would  not  be  pushed.  They  fed  him  some  more 
until,  filled  to  repletion,  he  rejected  what  they  brought;  but 
still,  regardless  of  the  protests  of  his  hungry  brethren,  he 
blocked  the  passage,  filled  with  wonder  at  the  new  outlook 
of  life.  He  remained  thus  for  nearly  two  hours,  when  a 
change  of  mind  suddenly  came  over  him,  and,  through  no 
forcible  persuasion,  he  suddenly  backed  into  the  hole.  His 
place  was  taken  at  once  by  another,  who  relinquished  it  to 
the  third,  only  after  taking  his  fill  of  the  outdoor  surround- 
ings. The  third  remained  to  be  fed  for  the  space  of  ten  min- 
utes or  so,  and  before  it  could  do  more  than  look  around, 
was  violently  replaced  by  the  first  claimant  for  the  position, 
who  squeezed  into  the  opening  and  pushed  his  companion 
down  into  the  nest.  He  held  the  position  most  of  the  day, 


GREY  BREASTED  MARTINS  335 

except  when  the  others,  driven  to  desperation  by  hunger  suc- 
ceeded in  ousting  him  for  a  few  moments.  (Fig.  113.) 

The  performance  was  repeated  daily  for  several  days, 
a  youngster  always  being  at  the  entrance.  The  strongest 
spent  most  of  his  time  there.  His  parents  tried  every  means 
in  their  power  to  inveigle  him  forth,  but  for  a  long  time 
without  avail.  They  brought  him  nice  large  dragon-flies, 
which  were  held  tantalizingly  a  few  inches  away ;  they  called 
to  him  to  follow  them  as  they  moved  farther  and  farther 
along  the  perch ;  and  finally,  clinging  to  the  edge  of  the  hole, 
they  fluttered  to  the  perch  to  show  how  easy  it  was.  As  his 
courage  increased  he  gradually  leaned  farther  out  of  the 
door  to  follow  their  movements  or  to  make  an  attempt  at 
securing  the  morsels  they  brought.  One  day — the  sixth — he 
leaned  too  far,  and  lost  his  balance.  With  an  effort  he  man- 
aged to  clutch  the  stick  and  with  a  mighty  flutter  of  wings 
found  himself  safe  and  sound  on  the  out-hanging  perch.  At 
first  he  scarcely  dared  to  breathe  for  every  little  movement 
upset  his  equilibrium,  and  it  was  only  by  hard  fluttering  that 
he  could  regain  his  balance.  He  commenced  uncertainly, 
after  the  first  fright  wore  off,  to  preen  his  feathers  of  the 
small  flakes  of  down  still  adhering  and  to  stretch  his  wings. 
The  mother  bird  sat  close  by,  chirping  to  give  confidence,  or 
made  short  flights  to  instruct  him  in  the  first  rudiments.  The 
father  busily  fed  the  others,  for  the  mother  had  no  time  to 
spare. 

Soon  the  little  martin  commenced  to  take  interest  in  his 
surroundings  and  looked  about  with  much  craning  of  neck, 
glancing  this  way  and  that,  both  up  and  down.  Once  he 
lost  courage  and  scrambled  back  to  the  hole,  but  soon  re- 
turned as  if  thoroughly  ashamed  of  himself.  At  last,  upon 
casting  a  convulsive  look  downward,  he  lost  his  balance,  and 
away  he  went,  bravely  struggling  to  keep  in  the  air,  at  a 
slant  toward  the  ground.  Suddenly  the  knowledge  seemed 
to  come,  and  he  rose  above  the  bushes,  a  little  uncertainly  at 
first,  but  acquiring  more  confidence  as  he  progressed.  And, 


336         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

before  disappearing  from  sight,  he  had  essayed  the  first 
wavering  soar. 

Instead  of  making  for  the  nearest  perch,  he  flew  around 
and  around  for  more  than  ten  minutes,  always  gaining  in 
skill  and  steadiness,  so  that  it  was  a  hard  matter  to  tell  their 
flight  apart  when  he  returned  accompanied  by  his  mother. 
He  alighted  on  the  roof  of  the  box,  for  the  perch,  at  first, 
looked  too  difficult,  and  made  that  the  base  for  other  prac- 
tice flights.  Finally  time  arrived  to  seek  the  nest,  but  then 
came  the  perplexing  question,  Which  of  the  four  holes  was 
it  ?  Two  laborious  attempts  at  wrong  ones  at  length  pointed 
out  the  right  one. 

The  second  bird  left  the  nest  on  the  following  day,  but 
several  more  days  elapsed  before  the  third  made  its  escape, 
having  remained  in  the  nest  for  more  than  a  month. 

The  general  delay  undoubtedly  was  due  to  the  environ- 
mental change  in  locality  of  the  nest.  They  are  ordinarily 
placed  in  such  a  position  that  the  young  may  at  least  sit  on 
the  edge  of  the  nest  and  exercise  their  wings  preparatory  to 
the  first  flight.  In  this  case,  in  their  cramped  quarters,  there 
was  no  such  advantage,  and,  at  flight  time,  the  young  birds 
were  entirely  unprepared  for  the  new  problem  that  con- 
fronted them.  They  awaited,  therefore,  their  full  strength 
and  feather  growth  before  making  the  attempt,  and,  when 
flight  time  did  come,  it  was  not  a  weak  flutter  to  a  nearby 
roof  or  friendly  bush,  but  a  strong  sally  which  almost  rivaled 
that  of  their  parents. 

For  ten  days  or  more  the  birds  used  the  box  as  their 
home  and  doubtless  would  be  using  it  yet  if,  while  they  pre- 
pared to  rear  a  second  brood,  the  elders  had  not  driven  them 
away.  During  their  short  occupancy  I  became  interested 
in  their  evident  inability  to  remember,  or  disregard  of  which 
of  the  four  openings  in  the  box  really  was  their  true  home. 
Even  after  a  week  of  exploration  and  investigation  the  ques- 
tion seemed  to  be  somewhat  in  doubt,  for  they  seldom,  until 
near  the  end,  made  their  way  directly  to  the  proper  spot, 


GREY   BREASTED    MARTINS  337 

but  first  tried  several  other  holes  as  on  the  first  day  of  depar- 
ture. At  length,  after  many  trips,  the  proper  method  of 
approach  suddenly  dawned  upon  their  consciousness,  and 
thereafter  they  made  it  with  unerring  skill. 

At  that  time  there  was,  under  the  house,  a  second  nest 
with  three  slightly  incubated  eggs,  which  I  thought  might 
be  put  to  some  use.  By  watching  the  other  birds  I  realized 
that  many  actions  were  the  result  of  newly  acquired  habits, 
and  therefore  might  be  influenced  by  outside  agencies.  How 
far,  though,  did  these  habits  control  instinct  ?  Up  to  the  pres- 
ent, evidence  showed  that  young  birds  with  undeveloped  in- 
tellect, ignorant  of  the  life  struggle  before  them,  even  though 
homing  instinct  was  predominant,  were  able,  only  by  repeat- 
ed trials,  to  recognize  their  home  among  several  others  of 
similar  appearance.  Similarly  their  parents,  upon  first  tak- 
ing possession,  had  carried  straws  to  each  of  the  four  holes 
until  they  discovered  that  four  nests  were  building  instead 
of  one;  even  then  they  would  often  carry  to  the  next  hole 
before  discovering  their  mistake.  At  length  after  many 
trips,  they  became  so  used  to  the  proper  location  that  no  fur- 
ther errors  were  made.  Thus,  even  they  were  dependent 
upon  a  habit  to  point  out  their  permanent  home ;  a  habit  cre- 
ated by  repeated  trials  through  which  the  sense  of  exact  lo- 
cation became,  at  length,  indelibly  fixed  upon  their  brains. 

The  nest  containing  the  three  eggs  in  question,  though 
placed  out  of  any  direct  rays  of  the  sun,  was  exposed  to  the 
light  of  day,  so  that  the  eggs  were  in  plain  view  of  the  par- 
ent, when  approaching  the  nest.  One  day,  I  carefully 
marked  the  eggs  with  blotches  of  black  ink,  leaving  uncolored 
the  large  ends  with  their  air  chambers,  and  placed  them  back 
in  the  nest  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  same  old  position.  At 
first  the  martins  were  much  excited  and  looked  at  the  eggs 
askance,  peering  this  way  and  that,  as  if  they  might  find 
the  lost  originals  hidden  away  in  some  darkened  corner.  In 
a  few  minutes,  however,  deciding  that,  though  they  did  look 
different,  they  were  still  the  same  eggs,  one  of  the  birds  hesi- 


338         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

tatingly  crouched  upon  them  and  the  incubation  proceeded 
as  if  nothing  had  occurred. 

The  following  day  I  removed  both  nest  and  eggs,  put- 
ting them  in  a  prominent  spot,  only  a  few  feet  away  from 
their  original  resting  place.  The  parent  bird,  disturbed  by 
my  efforts,  flew  excitedly  about,  and  the  instant  I  left  the 
ladder,  flew  to  where  her  home  had  been.  She  almost  upset 
herself  in  vain  efforts  to  alight  on  the  nest,  where  the  nest 
was  not.  Only  after  crouching  for  a  full  minute  among  the 
few  straws  that  were  left,  did  she  realize  that  it  was  gone. 
She  rushed  to  the  edge  of  the  beam,  looked  around  and  then 
back  to  where  the  nest  ought  to  be,  dragging  the  straws  about 
as  if  the  nest  might  be  hidden  beneath  them ;  then  to  the  edge 
to  look  at  the  ground  below,  and  then  back.  She  repeated 
all  these  movements  several  times,  and  at  last,  thinking  that 
some  terrible  mistake  had  been  made,  flew  about  for  a  few 
minutes  before  returning  to  repeat  her  former  operations. 
Again  she  returned,  this  time  with  her  mate,  who  in  turn, 
showed  excitement,  and  to  whom  the  mystery  was  as  inex- 
plicable as  to  her.  Finally  they  perched  together  on  the 
beam  edge.  Their  eyes  searched  in  all  directions,  though 
chiefly  downward,  as  if  the  nest  had  fallen  and  rolled  to 
some  obscure  hiding  place.  Then  they  flew  away  only  to 
return  again  and  again,  hoping  each  time  to  find  the  nest 
in  its  old  position.  The  nest  remained  in  plain  sight,  but, 
though  they  often  passed  close  by,  the  idea  never  occurred 
to  them  to  investigate  it. 

At  last,  deciding  that  it  was  not  on  the  ground  and  not 
thinking  to  search  elsewhere,  they  went  to  roost  on  the  orig- 
inal site.  Doubtless  it  was  instinct  that  caused  them  to 
search  below,  but  it  must  have  been  the  habit  of  finding  the 
nest  in  the  same  place  day  after  day,  which  prompted  them 
to  seek  only  in  the  one  spot  above,  although  the  nest  stood  in 
plain  view  before  them. 

Instinct  and  actual  habit  are  so  closely  associated  that 
at  times  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  distinguish  between  them. 


GREY   BREASTED    MARTINS  339 

What  often  is  taken  for  instinct  really  is  a  newly  acquired 
habit  which,  under  other  conditions,  might  be  altered.  Thus 
it  happened,  on  the  following  day,  that  the  martins  instinc- 
tively commenced  to  build  a  new  nest,  but,  from  habit,  used 
the  old  site.  From  habit  they  roosted  there,  even  though 
they  knew  some  enemy  to  be  abroad  that  had  knowledge  of 
their  hiding  place,  and  though  an  innate  instinct  must  have 
urged  them  to  choose  another  location. 

I  do  not  pretend  to  intimate  that  newly  formed  habit 
runs  contrary  to  instinct  among  all  birds  and  animals,  for 
such  is  not  the  case.  If  it  were,  there  soon  would  be  no  ani- 
mals or  birds  left,  nor  other  intelligent  life.  If  the  weak 
inoffensive  bird  in  the  bush  did  not  instinctively  change  its 
abode  after  that  abode  had  been  pillaged,  a  second  outrage 
from  the  same  source  would  soon  follow.  The  same  prompt- 
ing causes  that  bird  to  change  its  abode  from  season  to  sea- 
son, for,  if  the  home  were  permanent,  it  would  not  long  sur- 
vive the  encroachments  of  its  enemies  and,  once  discovered, 
would  immediately  became  a  prey  to  repeated  maurauding 
expeditions.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  certain  birds, 
which,  because  they  build  in  protected  localities,  have  no  need 
to  change,  and  so,  season  after  season,  and  year  after  year, 
return  to  the  same  spot  to  nest. 

To  such  a  class  belong  the  martins.  They  have  been  pro- 
tected for  hundreds  of  generations,  first  by  tree  holes  and 
then  by  the  buildings  of  civilization.  The  instinct  for  pro- 
tective change  of  home  has  gradually  become  dormant  and 
the  habit — now  nearly  an  instinct,— of  permanency  has  be- 
come dominant,  just  as  the  habits  of  civilization  dominate 
our  own  savage  instincts,  which  often  burst  forth  in  times 
of  crisis.  If  repeatedly  disturbed,  the  birds  will  change, 
often  at  terrible  cost,  as  has  been  the  case  of  many  of  our 
game  birds,  ducks  and  even  song  birds,  and  the  old  instinct 
of  natural  preservation  against  enemies,  never  really  absent 
— only  dormant — becomes  uppermost.  They  will  learn  new 
habits  with  which  to  combat  most  effectively  the  new  enemy 


340         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

and  these  habits,  in  turn,  will  finally  become  practically  an 
instinct  to  them. 

But  to  return  to  our  martins ;  when  I  had  destroyed  the 
second  nest  a  few  days  later,  they  did  not  attempt  a  third, 
but  still  continued  to  roost  there  each  night.  Penard  tells  us 
of  taking  four  sets  of  eggs  from  the  nest  of  a  pair  of  these 
birds  and  still  they  would  not  leave.  In  this  instance  the 
habit  of  living  in  one  place  was  supreme  and  clearly  domin- 
ated the  instinctive  idea  of  seeking  a  safer  home.  Undoubt- 
edly the  idea  would  become  uppermost  if  the  persecutions 
kept  up. 

As  has  been  said,  individual  habit  and  instinct  are  so 
closely  allied  that  it  is  hard  to  distinguish  between  them,  but, 
nevertheless,  there  are  certain  points  where  the  line  may  be 
drawn,  of  instinct  as  subordinate  to  new  habit.  Thus  the 
young  martins,  in  spite  of  all  their  homing  instincts,  could 
not  find  their  home  until  they  had  determined,  through  repe- 
tition, in  which  of  the  four  holes  it  was  located.  Such  knowl- 
edge was  acquired  only  after  many  trials  and  trips,  whereby 
a  habit  of  arriving  at  the  right  point  was  created.  The  re- 
sults of  the  experiment  with  colored  eggs  may  be  put  down 
to  either  instinct  or  habit,  yet,  as  the  birds  must  have  realized 
that  the  eggs  were  different,  it  may  have  been  habit  more 
than  instinct  that  caused  them  to  continue  the  incubation. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  from  habit  only,  they 
roosted  and  started  a  new  nest  in  the  same  place,  after  the 
old  had  been  destroyed.  This  habit  would  have  proved 
costly,  if  the  nest  had  been  destroyed  by  an  enemy  which, 
after  new  eggs  were  laid,  would  have  returned  to  repeat  its 
performance. 

Evidence  also  points  out  that  a  certain  few  of  their  daily 
actions  in  the  round  of  life  are  due,  not  so  much  to  inborn 
instinct  as  many  believe,  but  to  habits  acquired  from  a  youth- 
ful training  by  their  parents,  from  experience,  and  from  a 
wide  sense  of  imitating  their  elders.  For  instance,  the  young 
bird  has  to  be  taught  how  to  catch  insects.  He  knows  that 


GREY    BREASTED    MARTINS 


341 


they  are  his  proper  food,  because  he  has  so  been  fed  from 
the  time  of  hatching,  and  he  finally  learns  how  to  catch  them 
only  after  instruction  by  and  imitation  of  his  parents. 

These  observations  show,  in  this  bird  at  any  rate, — 
though  probably  in  many  others — that  certain  habits  have 
been  acquired,  due  to  the  protection  afforded  by  the  advance 
of  civilization  which,  if  the  bird  were  transplanted  from  civ- 
ilization to  ancient  conditions,  would  be  of  great  detriment 
to  it.  These  newly  acquired  habits  dominate  its  natural 
instincts. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

PRELIMINARY    NOTES    ON    THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    WING 

That  the  different  sections  of  the  wings  of  the  hoatzin 
and  the  common  fowl  change  appreciably  in  proportion  dur- 
ing the  growth  of  the  birds  has  been  demonstrated  by  Pycraf t 
and  others.  These  writers  show  that  the  changes  taking  place 
in  each  are  more  or  less  parallel. 

The  forearm  of  the  newly  hatched  hoatzin  is  much  short- 
er than  the  hand,  though  in  the  adult  it  is  longer.  In  the 
embryo  of  about  two-thirds  development  both  are  practically 
of  the  same  length,  the  hand  being  a  trifle  shorter.  The 
forearm,  though  now  slightly  larger,  soon  after  hatching 
shortens  to  the  same  length  as  the  arm,  which  it  parallels 
until  maturity.  A  glance  at  the  following  figures  will  show 
that  the  development  of  each  is  in  a  directly  opposite 
direction : 

Opistliocomus  hoazin  (Illiger) 

Arm  Forearm  Hand 

Embryo  (%  dev.)   73.6  mm.  69.6  mm.  68.2  mm. 

2  day  nestling 69.       "  66.25  "  79.65  " 

10  "  63.6     "  63.6     "  82.6     " 

14  "  74.7     "  74.6     "  80. 

Juvenile  72.       "  73.       "  66.5     " 

Adult  71.       "  80.       "  65. 

Note:  All  the  dimensions  in  the  above  and  preceding  figures  were  ob- 
tained by  using  the  adult  measurements  as  a  constant.  The  measurements  of 
the  young  birds  were  increased  so  that  if  the  birds  were  actually  as  large  as  the 
adult  the  length  of  their  arm  segments  would  be  as  in  the  above  columns. 

The  development  of  the  wings  of  the  jacana  and  the 
ani  are  discussed  in  other  chapters  where  the  great  amount 
of  variation  in  both  is  shown.  There  is  a  similarity  between 
the  two;  both  show  the  lengthening  of  the  immature  hand 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  WING 


343 


FIG.  114.     DIAGRAM  OF  WING  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  HOATZIN 

and  its  decrease  at  maturity.  The  great  possible  variability 
of  the  arm  first  becomes  apparent  in  the  jacana,  the  growth 
of  that  segment  being  quite  the  opposite  of  that  of  the  hand, 
while  the  middle  section  remains  practically  constant 
throughout  all  stages. 

Though  the  different  portions  of  the  wing  are  nearly 
equal  in  the  adult  blue-winged  parrakeet,  there  is  a  consid- 
erable variation  in  the  earlier  stages  of  growth. 


Psittacula  passerina  (Linn.) 


24  hour  nestling 
3  dav 


Adult  21 


Arm 
26.2  mm. 
24.6     " 
23. 


Forearm 
20.7  mm, 
19. 

22.4  " 

20.5  " 


Hand 
24.4  mm. 

18.4  " 
17.       " 

21.5  " 


Both  the  arm  and  the  hand  of  the  twenty-four-hour 
nestling  are  longer  than  in  the  adult,  while  the  forearm  is 
about  the  same.  The  arm  decreases  steadily  to  maturity 
through  all  stages.  The  whole  wing,  however,  at  three  days, 
is  shorter  than  in  the  adult,  the  hand  in  particular  having 
greatly  decreased  until  slightly  smaller  than  the  forearm  and 
considerably  shorter  than  the  mature  hand.  By  the  seventh 
day  it  is  still  comparatively  shorter,  while  the  forearm  has 


344         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


FIG.  115.     DIAGRAM  OF  WING  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  TRUMPETER 

lengthened  until  it  is  larger  than  in  the  adult.  Thus  in  seven 
days  the  conditions  of  the  hand  and  forearm  directly  alter- 
nate. They  return  to  their  former  state  at  maturity,  though 
the  hand  is  not  proportionally  quite  so  large  as  it  was  in  the 
newly  hatched  chick. 

The  longer  wing  of  the  twenty-four-hour  nestling  is 
probably  a  reminder  of  bygone  ages,  when  the  wing  was 
longer  at  maturity  than  at  present.  The  excess  of  length, 
it  is  evident,  was  chiefly  in  the  upper  arm,  upon  which  some 
change  of  condition  has  acted,  causing  a  gradual  reduction 
without  materially  affecting  the  other  portions  of  the  wing. 

Psophia  crepitans  (Linn.) 

Arm           Forearm  Hand 

6  day  chick  74.2  mm.       58.5  mm.  75.9  mm. 

14     "         "         74.4     "           67.4     "  73.6     " 

Adult  77.       "          73.       "  65. 

There  is  a  decrease  of  the  hand  in  the  grey-backed  trum- 
peter (Psophia  crepitans)  as  compared  with  an  increase  of 
the  forearm.  The  arm  also  gradually  increases,  but  to  no 
such  extent  as  the  next  section.  Some  of  the  shortening  of  the 
hand  is  doubtless  due,  as  in  the  hoatzin,  to  the  reduction  of 
the  claws,  for  in  the  young  bird  there  are  the  remnants  of 
two,  one  on  the  thumb  and  one  at  the  tip  of  the  wing.  The 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  WING  345 

trumpeter  at  one  time  probably  owned  at  least  two  good, 
functional,  clawed  fingers  as  does  the  young  hoatzin  of  today. 
That  time,  however,  is  passed,  though  the  stage  representing 
the  young  hoatzin  may  possibly  yet  be  found  in  the  embryo. 
The  fact  that  trumpeters  live  principally  on  the  ground — 
only  roosting  in  the  trees  at  night — and  are  essentially  run- 
ning birds,  having  lost  most  of  their  arboreal  habits,  may  ac- 
count for  the  reduction  of  these  digits.  Like  the  hoatzin  they 
nest  in  trees,  but,  unlike  them,  as  soon  as  the  egg  is  hatched, 
the  parent  conveys  the  chick  to  the  ground,  where  it  soon 
learns  to  run  about  and  hide  as  well  as  any  newly  hatched 
pheasant  or  partridge.  It  does  not  acquire  its  flight  feathers 
as  soon  as  the  partridge  and  this  lack  of  wing  exercise  may 
account  in  part  for  the  relatively  slow  development  of  the 
hand  and  forearm. 

The  adult  domestic  pigeon  has  a  longer  arm  than  fore- 
arm. Both  are  practically  of  the  same  length  when  the  em- 
bryo is  fully  developed,  but  the  arm  rapidly  lengthens  while 
the  forearm  relatively  decreases  in  length  when  the  egg- 
hatches  and  the  squab  commences  to  grow.  The  develop- 
ment of  the  two  segments  in  this  case  is  also  in  opposite  di- 
rections, but  the  directions  are  different  from  the  preceding 
examples. 

The  development  of  the  wing  of  the  Guiana  green  heron 
(Butorides  virescens)  is  peculiar  because  there  is  little  of 
the  variation  between  the  growth  of  the  forearm  and  the 
hand  which  is  so  characteristic  of  the  other  species  mentioned. 

Butorides  virescens  (Linn.) 

Arm  Forearm  Hand 

10  day  embryo  70.55  mm.  62.7  mm.  55.2  mm. 

14     "  "        69.  63.        "  57. 

3     "     nestling    70.  65.       "  55. 

L4     "  66.3       "  66.3     "  57.2     " 

ully  fledged  58.5       "  59.5     "  62.4     " 

64.          "  69.5     "  56. 


346         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

The  proportions  of  the  wing  upon  hatching  are  much 
the  same  as  those  of  the  adult,  except  that  the  arm  is  a  little 
longer  and  the  forearm  a  little  shorter,  while  the  hand  re- 
mains about  the  same.  The  main  variation  during  growth 
takes  place  between  the  forearm  and  the  arm,  the  former 
increasing  proportionally  as  the  latter  decreases.  The  hand 
parallels  the  forearm  and  increases  slowly  but  steadily  until 
the  young  heron  is  fully  fledged.  It  greatly  exceeds  the 
adult  in  length  at  this  time,  but  for  the  rest  of  the  developing 
period — which  lasts  for  several  weeks — it  decreases  until  the 
bird  is  mature.  In  this  respect  it  closely  resembles  the  hand 
of  the  hoatzin,  though  its  excess  of  length  is  not  so  great, 
and  there  are  no  large  claws  to  reduce. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  young  herons,  like 
the  young  hoatzins,  climb  about  the  tree  or  bush  where  their 
nest  is  situated,  before  being  able  to  fly,  they  have  no  wing 
claws.  They  are  a  curious  combination  of  precocious  birds 
and  those  that  are  born  helpless.  For  the  first  ten  days 
or  two  weeks  after  hatching  they  are  as  helpless  in  their  nest 
as  any  nidicolous  bird,  but  after  that — long  before  they  de- 
velop flight — they  may  be  seen  moving  freely  about  among 
the  maze  of  branches  near  their  nest.  They  seldom  use  their 
wings  to  climb  with,  but  rely  chiefly  upon  their  great  wide- 
spread toes  to  carry  them  to  safety  from  a  chance  pursuer. 
The  erect  position  and  great  feet  enable  them  to  do  by  bal- 
ance what  the  hoatzin  has  to  do  by  crawling  and  clinging. 
If  by  rare  chance,  they  do  lose  their  equilibrium,  the  instinct 
of  many  forgotten  ages  comes  to  their  aid  and  out  go  the 
wings  to  brace  against  the  nearest  hold  as  naturally  as  they 
did  many  thousands  of  generations  ago.  It  is  undoubtedly 
largely  due  to  the  acquired  erect  posture  of  body  and  there- 
fore ease  of  balance,  that  the  wings  have  lost  their  claws,  for 
as  the  habit  of  balance  increased,  so  must  the  use  for  func- 
tional fingers  have  decreased,  until  as  useful  members  they 
became  obliterated. 

In  one  of  the  toucans  at  least,  and  in  some  of  the  Pas- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  WING  347 

seres,  conditions  appear  to  be  different  from  the  preceding- 
cases.  There  seems  to  be  a  more  or  less  regular  variation 
between  all  three  segments  of  the  wing.  The  black-necked 
toucan  (Pteroglossus  aracari)  presents  the  most  perfect  ex- 
ample of  this. 

Pteroglossus  aracari  (Linn.) 

Arm  Forearm  Hand 

6  day  nestling  45.2  mm.  54.6  mm.  39.5  mm. 

21      "                       44.3     "  57.5     "  38. 

Adult  44.       "  60.5     "  35. 

Each  segment  of  the  wing  shows  a  steady  relative  varia- 
tion through  all  stages  of  development  to  maturity.  The 
arm  lessens  gradually;  the  forearm  lengthens,  and  the  hand 
decreases.  Curiously  enough  the  increase  of  the  forearm,  to 
all  intents  and  purposes,  equals  the  total  decrease  of  the  arm 
and  hand. 

The  comparative  shortness  of  the  hand  in  the  adult  is 
worth  commenting  upon.  If  an  embryo  could  be  examined 
it  would  probably  show  a  very  differently  proportioned 
hand  than  even  in  the  six-day-old  nestling.  As  it  is,  the 
length  of  this  member  is  so  much  greater  and  the  forearm 
so  much  shorter  in  the  six-day-old  bird  that  it  is  evident  that 
at  some  former  period,  when  the  world  was  younger,  the 
adult  had  a  more  evenly  balanced  wing. 

The  present  shortness  may  be  due  to  a  steady  decreasing 
need  for  this  member  as  an  agent  of  flight.  The  flight  of  the 
toucan  is  comparatively  weak  and  one  of  the  common  sounds 
of  the  jungle  is  the  heavy  whir  of  their  wings  as  they  labor 
from  tree  to  tree.  Perhaps,  when  climatic  conditions  were 
different,  they  found  it  necessary  to  seek  further  afield  than 
today  for  their  food,  which  now  may  be  found  in  almost 
every  tree  top.  Individually,  they  appear  now  to  live  in  one 
small  section  the  year  round  and  their  total  wing  exercise 
consists  of  a  few  short  flights  from  one  tree  to  another  dur- 
ing the  day. 


348         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 


FIG.  116.     DIAGRAM  OF  WING  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  BLACK-NECKED  TOUCAN 

The  few  passerine  birds  examined  show  two  main  meth- 
ods of  variation  during  growth,  especially  between  the  hand 
and  the  forearm.  In  one,  the  hand  first  increases  in  propor- 
tional length  and  then  shortens  to  adult  size,  being  offset  in 
the  opposite  direction  to  some  extent  by  the  forearm.  In  the 
second,  opposite  conditions  obtain;  the  hand  of  the  nest- 
ling always  is  shorter 1  than  the  adult  and  the  forearm  longer. 

Galeoscoptes  carolinensis  (Linn.) 

Arm  Forearm  Hand 

Embryo  26.5  mm.       23.8  mm.       20.     mm. 

Newly  hatched  25.       "          20.7     "  23.5     " 

3  day  old  nestling  23.8     "          20.3     "  26.2     " 

6     "         "  22.        "  22.        "  25.8     " 

Adult  20.2     "          26.6     "  23. 

A  typical  example  of  the  first  method  may  be  found  in 
the  catbird  of  North  America  (Galeoscoptes  carolinensis). 
There  is  a  steady  decrease  in  the  length  of  the  arm  which 
commences  in  the  newly-hatched  nestling.  The  forearm 
increases  at  about  the  same  rate,  while  the  hand  first  in- 

1  The  words  "short"  and  "long"  in  the  sense  here  used  do  not  mean  that  the 
hand  grows  shorter  or  longer  in  actual  length,  .but  in  proportional  length  only. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  WING 

[  1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1  i-i  1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 
,"tfi^iffl  ces: :  r~t  : :  SEEKS  : H  -  - 


FIG.  117.     DIAGRAM  OF  WING  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CATBIRD 

creases  and  then  decreases,  being  in  the  adult  practically  the 
same  as  it  was  in  the  young  chick.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
toucan  the  total  increase  and  decrease  in  the  development 
about  offset  each  other. 

The  increase  of  the  hand  in  the  first  few  days  may  be 
less  the  shadow  of  an  ancestral  character  than  a  prepara- 
tion for  the  growth  of  primaries,  which,  at  this  date,  are  of 
great  size.  The  bird  has  so  long  been  reared  in  a  state  of 
helplessness  that  there  appear  to  be  but  few  traces  of  an 
elongated  hand  in  the  late  embryo.  The  forearm  and  hand, 
on  the  contrary,  show  traces  of  an  early  weakening  and 
shortening. 


Cassicus  cela  (Linn.) 


2  day  nestling 


3 

7     " 
Adult  .. 


Arm 
35.5  mm. 
34.5     " 
34.3     " 
33.8     " 


Forearm 
41.5  mm. 
43.       " 
41.8     " 
44. 


Hand 
37.3  mm, 
36.5     " 
37.7     " 
36. 


The  development  of  the  yellow-backed  cacique  prac- 
tically parallels  that  of  the  catbird,  though  the  variations  are 
not  so  large.  It  is  a  noticeable  feature  that  in  the  three-day 
nestling,  where  there  is  a  slight  decrease  in  the  hand,  it  is  ac- 
companied by  a  corresponding  increase  of  the  forearm. 


350         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

In  the  half -fledged  nestling  of  the  Guiana  spinetail 
(SynallcuKis  guianensis],  the  hand  is  quite  appreciably  long- 
er than  in  the  adult,  while  the  other  sections  follow  the  same 
course  as  in  the  two  preceding  birds. 

Among  other  birds  of  the  same  order  there  is  another 
method  of  development  in  the  wing,  the  difference  being  that 
the  forearm  lengthens  and  decreases  instead  of  the  hand  as 
previously  mentioned.  In  the  half -grown  fledgling  of  both 
the  kiskadee  (Pitangus  sulphur atus)  and  the  silver-beaked 
tanager  (Ramphocelus  carbo)  the  forearm  is  decidedly  larg- 
er than  in  the  adult. 

Pitangus  sulphuratus  ( Linn. ) 

Arm  Forearm  Hand 

Newly  hatched  30.1  mm.       33.4  mm.  27.8  mm. 

14  day  nestling  28.4     "          36.2     "  26.6     " 

Adult  29.       "          33.5     "  29. 

Here  again  is  a  case  where  a  sudden  increase  of  one 
segment  is  accompanied  by  the  decrease  of  another,  though 
this  time  there  is  diminution  of  both  the  hand  and  arm. 
The  total  decrease  of  the  two,  however,  equals  the  amount 
of  extra  length  in  the  forearm. 

The  wing  development  of  the  grey-breasted  martin 
(Progne  chah/bea)  is  slightly  different  from  either  of  the 
two  preceding  methods  of  growth.  This  is  due  to  its  ad- 
vanced powers  of  flight,  which  necessitates  a  rather  length- 
ened hand,  though  both  the  forearm  and  hand  are  propor- 
tionally smaller  in  the  younger  stages  than  in  the  adult. 

Progne  chalybca  (Gmel.) 

Arm  Forearm  Hand 

3  day  nestling  26.5  mm.  29.1  mm.  25.4  mm. 

7  24.1     "  27.7     "  29.2     " 

14     "  20.9     "  28.4     "  31.9     " 

Fully  fledged  19.2     "  30.5     "  31. 

Adult  20.       "  29.       "  32.       " 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  WING  351 

There  is  a  directly  opposite  variation  between  the  hand 
and  the  arm,  while  the  length  of  the  middle  segment  remains 
constant  throughout.  The  lengthened  hand  and  shortened 
arm  is  undoubtedly  a  parallelism  with  the  swifts,  though  it 
does  not  attain  such  extremes.  The  ratio  of  the  wing  seg- 
ments of  the  giant  swift  (Chaetura  zonaris  albicincta)  of 
the  Guianas,  commencing  with  the  humerus,  is  20-27-53, 
while  that  of  the  martin  is  24.6-35.8-40  per  cent.  There  is  a 
vast  difference,  but  the  tendency  is  toward  that  of  the  swift. 

It  would  be  hard  to  imagine  the  albatross  with  its  tre- 
mendously long  humerus  or,  indeed,  any  other  bird  with  a 
long  arm,  dodging  and  twisting  through  the  air  with  the 
agility  of  a  swift  in  pursuit  of  an  insect.  The  laws  of  me- 
chanics make  it  impossible  for  such  a  bird  to  move  its  wings 
with  the  rapidity  necessary  for  an  operation  of  this  kind. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  bird  with  a  short  humerus,  because  the 
bone  has  a  lesser  arc  to  describe,  can  do  this  writh  less  expense 
of  energy.  Therefore  the  swift,  from  a  need  of  having  to 
folk>w  its  rapid  and  elusive  insect  prey  on  the  wing,  has  a 
short  arm,  and  to  make  up  for  this  discrepancy,  a  proportion- 
ally lengthened  hand.  Their  nesting  habits  are  also  condu- 
cive to  a  shortened  arm — nesting  as  they  do,  in  caverns  and 
hollow  trees  or  building  great  elongated  tunnels  that  hang 
from  palm  leaves  and  cliff  walls ;  but  the  habits  are  probably 
a  result  of  and  not  a  cause  for  the  shortening. 

The  martin  more  or  less  parallels  the  swift  in  its  general 
feeding  habits  and  nesting  sites.  Though  it  does  not  have 
such  supreme  command  over  the  air,  still  it  makes  a  living 
catching  its  food  by  aerial  pursuit,  wjhich  necessitates  a 
good  control  of  the  wings  and  great  dodging  ability.  Thus 
the  arm  must  have  a  tendency  to  shorten,  and  the  hand  to 
lengthen. 

SUMMARY 

Throughout  the  development  of  all  the  birds  above  men- 
tioned there  seems  to  be  a  certain  balance  kept  between  the 


352         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

different  portions  of  the  wing.  Among  the  birds  that  are 
fairly  strong  fliers,  when  one  segment  increases  proportion- 
ally in  length,  another  decreases  in  the  same  proportion,  or 
both  of  the  others  diminish  to  such  an  extent  that  the  sum  of 
their  total  loss  equals  the  gain  of  the  first.  Furthermore, 
when  there  is  a  local  change  in  one  segment  at  a  single  period 
of  growth,  it  is  usually  balanced  by  an  opposite  change  in 
one  of  the  other  segments,  or  by  the  sum  of  the  changes  in 
both  of  the  others.  Thus  in  the  hoatzin,  the  toucan  and  the 
cacique — three  widely  separated  birds — we  find  that  the 
balance  is  kept  in  all  stages,  though  the  proportionate  lengths 
may  greatly  differ. 

The  blue-winged  parrakeet  is  an  exception  to  the  gen- 
eral rule.  In  this  bird  both  the  arm  and  the  hand  increase 
in  length  as  the  fledgling  grows  older,  while  the  forearm 
remains  approximately  the  same.  On  the  seventh  day,  how- 
ever, the  forearm  shows  a  considerable  increase  over  that  of 
the  adult  and  the  hand  a  much  greater  decrease.  While  this 
does  not  bear  out  the  second  rule,  it  at  least  shows  that  there 
is  a  tendency  toward  it. 

In  some  birds  that  use  their  feet  more  than  their  wings, 
the  proportional  growth  of  one  segment  remains  about  the 
same,  while  the  others  grow  in  opposite  directions.  In  the 
heron  it  is  the  pinion;  in  the  trumpeter,  the  arm;  in  the  ja- 
cana,  the  forearm.  The  growth  of  the  other  two  segments 
is  opposite  in  each,  the  greatest  variation  taking  place  in  the 
hand  and  the  arm  of  the  jacana. 

Or  more  concretely : 

A.  Throughout  the  development  of  the  wing  of  the 
hoatzin,  Guiana  green  heron,  trumpeter  and  jacana — birds 
that  use  their  feet  more  than  their  wings — the  proportional 
length  of  one  segment  remains  constant,  while  the  other  two 
vary  in  opposite  directions. 

B.  Throughout  the  development  of  the  wing  in  at  least 
one  toucan  and  in  several  Passeres,  a  balance  is  kept  between 
the  different  segments  so  that  when  one  portion  changes, 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  WING  353 

another  or  both  of  the  others  change  in  an  opposite  direction ; 
the  variation  of  one  equals  the  total  variation  of  the  others. 
C.  Throughout  the  development  of  the  wing  in  all  the 
birds  above  discussed,  when  there  is  a  change  of  length  in  one 
segment  at  any  particular  period  of  growth,  that  change  is 
balanced  in  the  same  period  by  an  opposite  variation  of  one 
or  both  of  the  other  segments. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PINION 

To  a  great  extent,  the  length  of  the  pinion  in  many  birds 
is  regulated  by  their  habits.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the 
various  changes  that  take  place  in  this  member  throughout 
the  period  that  elapses  from  the  embryonic  stages  to  ma- 
turity. It  is  possible  to  trace  in  them  some  of  the  changes 
that  have  taken  place  through  many  generations,  due  pos- 
sibly to  the  changes  of  environment  which  occurred  during 
the  later  geological  periods. 

Commencing  with  the  hoatzin  we  have  the  development 
of  the  hand,  outlined  as  follows : 

Opisthocomus  hoazin  (Illiger) 

Carpus  Digitus 

Embryo  43.  mm.  23.5  mm. 

10  day  nestling  34.       "  32.3     " 

14     "  "  34.2     "  32.1     " 

Adult  39.       "  27.5     " 

In  the  embryo  the  carpus — containing  the  metacarpals 
of  the  second  digit — is  very  long,  being  nearly  twice  as  great 
as  the  digitus  or  forefinger.  The  excess  of  length  is  a  relic 
of  past  ages  when  birds  were  not  so  far  removed  from  their 
reptilian  ancestors  as  they  are  at  the  present  day.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly a  remnant  of  the  elongated  metacarpals  of  the 
lizard. 

In  the  nestling  the  great  carpus  of  the  embryo  decreases 
in  length  and  the  digit  increases  proportionally.  This  is  at 


I 


354         TROPICAL   WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIG.  118.     DIAGRAM  OF  HAND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  HOATZIN 

the  period  when  the  claws  of  the  hoatzin  are  at  their  greatest 
development.  At  maturity  the  conditions  again  change ;  the 
carpus  elongates  and  the  digitus  shortens,  hut  the  difference 
is  not  so  great  as  it  was  in  the  embryo. 

Much  the  same  condition  exists  in  the  young  chick 
trumpeter.  The  carpus,  in  the  six-day  chick,  is  almost  twice 
the  digitus  in  length,  but  at  maturity  only  exceeds  it  by  a 
few  millimeters.  This  increase  of  the  digitus,  however,  does 
not,  as  in  the  hoatzin,  equal  the  decrease  of  the  carpus,  though 
the  delayed  growth  of  one  and  the  slight  elongation  of  the 
other  is  significant. 


6  day  chick 
Adult  .. 


P  sophia  ere  pi-tans     (Linn. 
Carpus 


37.5  mm. 
27. 


Digitus 
22.8  nun. 
23.5     " 


A  better  maintained  balance  in  the  hand — as  far  as  as- 
certained— is  found  to  a  more  or  less  extent  in  passerine  birds 
and  others  that  do  not  have  better  than  an  average  flight. 
The  variation  of  each  portion  in  the  individual  is  diamet- 
rically opposite.  This  is  especially  true  in  nestlings,  while 
in  the  embryo  the  variations  are  as  a  rule  greater  and  oppo- 
site. Such  is  the  case  with  birds  like  the  kiskadee,  yellow- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  WING 


355 


backed  cacique,  giant  cacique  (Ostinops) ,  silver-beaked 
tanager  and  blue-winged  parrakeet,  all  with  good  average 
flights,  but  which  have  a  small  variation  of  the  carpus  and 
digitus  during  their  development. 

Pitangus  sulphuratus      (Linn.) 

Carpus  Digitus 

%  Embryo 16.56  mm.  13.4  mm. 

Xewly  hatched  nestling  ...     16.  13. 

14  day  nestling  16.5       "  12.4     " 

Adult    17.  12.       " 

Birds  that  have  remnants  of  claws  are  doubtless,  as  a 
rule,  the  ones  in  which  the  fingers  were  functional  most  re- 
cently. Traces  of  this  character  have  not  yet  been  lost;  so 
consequently  the  hands  still  function  ontogenetically,  to  fit 
the  requirements  of  fingers,  as  in  the  hoatzin.  In  most  cases 
of  altrical  birds  the  loss  of  this  character  either  antedated  or 
paralleled  their  helplessness;  otherwise  there  would  have 
been  little  need  for  a  change  to  the  present  state  and  we 
would  still  see  all  tiny  nestlings  crawling  about  the  branches 
like  little  hoatzins.  That  this  was  true  may  be  recognized 
from  the  great  variation  of  these  parts  in  the  embryo  of 
today. 

The  functional  fingers  being  lost  at  this  comparatively 
early  date,  it  was  natural  for  the  parts  of  the  hand  to  adjust 
themselves  to  the  new  conditions;  and  this  adjusting  is  still 


FIG.  119.    DIAGRAM  OF  HAND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  GUIANA  KISKADEE 


356 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIG.  120.     DIAGRAM  OF  HAND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  BLACK-NECKED  TOUCAN 

going  on,  as  the  flight  of  the  birds  gradually  changes.  Their 
flight  in  general  is  of  about  the  same  strength,  and  naturally 
it  follows  that  they  should  develop  along  more  or  less  paral- 
lel lines.  There  are  exceptions  to  this — as  will  be  shown — 
in  which  the  power  of  flight  has  been  either  increased  or  de- 
creased and  a  change  in  the  development  of  the  hand  shows 
accordingly. 

In  such  birds  as  the  toucan,  the  ani,  and  the  catbird, 
which  do  not  greatly  use  their  wings  in  their  daily  round  of 
life,  there  is  little  or  no  variation  in  the  growth  of  either  of 
the  hand  segments.  Though  the  actual  proportion  of  the 
carpus  to  the  digitus  may  vary  somewhat  in  the  different 
birds,  due  possibly  to  different  ancestral  or  even  present  day 
habits,  the  actual  method  of  growth  remains  practically  the 
same. 

Ptcroglossus  aracari  (Linn.) 
Carpus 

6  day  nestling 21.3  mm. 

21     "  21.5     " 

Adult  ..  22. 


Digitus 
13.5  mm. 
13.5     " 
13. 


Galeoscoptes  carolinensis  (Linn.) 

Carpus  Digitus 

Embryo 13.8  mm.  9.2  mm. 

3  day  nestling  12.5     "  10.5     " 

6     "  13.       "  10. 

Adult  ...  13.5     "  9.5     " 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  WING 


357 


The  grey-breasted  martin  has  a  greater  variation  than 
most,  but  that  it  is  due  to  the  effects  of  later  specialization 
is  very  well  shown.  In  the  very  young  nestling  the  differ- 
ence between  the  carpus  and  digitus  is  well  marked,  but  as 
it  grows  older  these  proportions  approach  each  other  in 
length  until  at  maturity  they  are  equal.  The  young  stage  is 
evidently  a  shadow  of  what  the  bird  was  in  more  ancient 
times. 


3  day  nestling 

7     "  "        

14     " 

Just  able  to  fly  - 


Progne  chalybea  (Gmel.) 

Carpus 

18.5  mm. 

17.6  " 

17.4  " 

16.5  " 


Adult  ...  16. 


Digitus 
13.5  mm. 

14.4  " 

14.5  " 
15.4     " 
16. 


The  increase  of  the  digitus  is  undoubtedly  due  to  spe- 
cialization of  flight  as  in  the  case  of  the  swift.  As  has  al- 
ready been  shown  in  the  case  of  this  bird,  a  decrease  of  the 
arm  is  followed  by  an  increase  of  the  hand.  The  digitus 
must,  therefore,  be  strengthened  to  support  the  strain  put 
upon  it  by  the  rapid  beat  of  wings  necessary  for  swiftly 
dodging  after  insects.  This,  together  with  the  increased  use 


FIG.  121.     DIAGRAM  OF  HAND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  GREY-BREASTED  MARTIN 


358         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

of  the  outer  primaries,  which  conies  as  a  secondary  result, 
makes  it  necessary  to  have  a  lengthened  and  stronger  digitus 
to  stand  the  new  conditions.  Until  we  can  investigate  the 
development  of  a  swift  or  hummingbird  it  will  be  impossible 
to  say  how  truly  this  parallelism  has  been  carried  out  in  the 
younger  stages  of  the  martin. 

From  the  development  of  the  few  pinions  described,  it 
is  an  easy  matter  to  see  that  their  growth  in  general  follows 
along  certain  lines.  Whether  the  pinions  of  all  other  flying 
birds  follow  the  same  rule  has  yet  to  be  ascertained.  In  all 
these  the  carpus  has  a  tendency  to  grow  in  an  opposite  direc- 
tion to  the  digitus.  In  some  the  variation  is  greater,  but 
wherever  there  is  any  variation  at  all  between  the  two  the 
tendency  is  opposite,  and  usually  the  decrease  of  one  equals 
the  increase  of  the  other. 

In  birds  that  show  traces  of  clawed  fingers  in  their  nest- 
ling or  adult  stages,  and  which  are  more  ancient  in  type, 
both  the  carpus  and  digitus  have  a  large  individual  variation 
in  their  rates  of  development.  On  the  other  hand  altrical 
birds — birds  that  are  born  helpless — have  little  or  no  varia- 
tion of  these  portions  except  when  the  flight  is  highly 
specialized. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

NOTES  ON  THE   PERAI  FISH 

NAMES  ,. 

Systematic:  Pygocentrus  niger   (Schomburgk). 
English:  Cannibal  Fish,  Carib  Fish. 
British  Guiana,  Colonial:  Perai. 

Portugese :  Piranha. 

. 

The  great  family  of  Characins  composes  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  fresh-water  fishes  of  South  America  and,  in 
British  Guiana  alone — according  to  Eigenmann,  more  than 
half.  The  Characinidae  are  divided  into  many  subfamilies 
of  varying  habits,  the  members  of  which  range  in  size  from 
the  most  minute  of  the  Hemigrammi  to  the  large  "pacu"  of 
the  rapids  arid  the  great  "aimara"  of  the  inland  creeks.  The 
subfamily  Serrasalmo,  to  which  belong  the  perai,  is  composed 
of  three  genera,  Pygocentrus,  Serrasalmo  and  Pygopristis, 
including,  in  all,  eight  known  species  of  the  Guianas,  though, 
doubtless,  many  others  still  remain  to  be  discovered.  Very 
little  appears  to  be  known  of  them  beyond  the  fact  that  they 
exist,  are  ferocious,  and,  in  the  case  of  the  perai,  are  exceed- 
ingly dangerous  to  whatever  living  beast  crosses  their  path. 

".  .  .  .  the  piranha  is  a  short,  deep-bodied  fish,  with  a 
blunt  face  and  a  heavily  undershot  or  projecting  jaw  which 
gapes  widely.  The  razor-edged  teeth  are  wedge-shaped  like 
a  shark's,  and  the  jaw  muscles  possess  great  power.  The 
rabid,  furious  snaps  drive  the  teeth  through  flesh  and  bone. 
The  head  with  its  short  muzzle,  staring  malignant  eyes,  and 
gaping,  cruelly  armed  jaws,  is  the  embodiment  of  evil  fero- 
city; and  the  actions  of  the  fish  exactly  match  its  looks." 

Never  found  nearer  to  the  coast  than  twenty  miles, 
where  the  last  defiling  taint  of  salt  water  merges  into  the 


360         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 


FIG.  122.     HEAD  OF  PERAI 


fresh,  the  perai  swarm  in  countless  hordes  through  many  of 
the  inland  reaches.  They  thrive  in  equal  numbers,  above  or 
below  the  rapids,  though  seldom  in  them,  for  they  do  not 
love  the  swish  and  swirl  of  hurried  water,  but  seek  rather  the 
slower  moving  back  currents  and  the  long  level  stretches 
between  the  falls.  The  deep  canals  of  the  Amazon  Valley 
and  the  quieter  pools  of  swift  running  mountain  streams  a 
thousand  miles  inland,  thousands  of  feet  above  the  level  oJ 
the  sea,  are  as  truly  their  home,  as  the  inner  fresh  tide- 
waters, only  forty  miles  from  the  sea.  And  everywhere  they 
are  a  scourge  both  to  men  and  beasts. 

During  our  stay  at  Kalacoon  the  question  several  times 
arose  as  to  whether  the  perai  is  a  bottom  fish  or  one  that  has 
no  particular  preference  for  its  field  of  action.  Observation 
shows  the  latter  to  be  the  case,  though  to  catch  them  on  a 
baited  hook,  the  best  results  are  obtained  by  allowing  the 
bait  to  rest  near  the  bottom.  They  may  be  seen  at  all  times 
of  the  day  leaping  and  playing  about  the  surface,  either  close 


NOTES   ON    PERAI  361 

under  the  wooded  bank  or  far  out  in  the  muddy  current. 
Sometimes  one  will  flash  into  the  air  for  a  second  and  then 
drop  back  with  a  small  splash.  But  usually  they  swim  near 
the  surface,  rippling  here  and  there  in  a  never  ending  search 
for  food,  or  darting  after  some  unwary  denizen  that  uncon- 
sciously crosses  their  path,  leaving  ever  widening  circles  be- 
hind them  in  their  flight.  Often  the  only  sign  is  the  scurry 
of  a  few  tiny  fresh-water  flying  fish  scattering  in  many  direc- 
tions, flipping  over  the  water  as  they  go,  all  fleeing  from 
those  dreadful  blood-thirsty  jaws. 

Hours  sometimes  pass  without  a  movement  in  the  water 
and  then  suddenly  there  is  a  splash,  and  you  know  that  the 
perai  are  at  work.  If  you  toss  a  small  lizard  into  the  pool 
or  a  wounded  bird  drops  into  it,  even  though  the  water  be  as 
quiet  and  as  innocent-looking  as  the  sky  above,  you  may  be 
sure  that  one  or  more  of  the  hungry  pirates  are  lurking  in  its 
dark  depths,  ready  to  pounce  upon  whatever  comes ;  and  you 
may  be  sure  that  the  poor  victim  will  never  reach  the  bank 
toward  which  it  so  vainly  struggles.  Suddenly  the  wild  flut- 
ters stop,  only  to  recommence  with  increased  frenzy.  There 
is  a  disturbance  about  with  ripples  running  to  the  shore; 
the  swimming  creature  strives  vainly  against  some  agency 
that  pulls  it  down;  then  it  disappears  and  the  waters  are 
quiet  once  more;  only  a  few  bubbles  float  upon  the  surface. 
Below,  in  the  coffee-colored  darkness,  that  which  was  but  a 
few  moments  ago  a  living  full-blooded  reptile  or  bird,  now 
fills  the  black  maws  of  the  demons  of  the  pool. 

Many  gruesome  tales  come  to  us  from  the  natives  who 
live  along  the  banks  of  the  infested  waterways.  Some  stor- 
ies are  true  and  many,  doubtless,  are  the  products  of  their 
inventive  imaginations.  But  the  fact  remains  that  these  fish, 
together  with  the  sting-rays  and  the  electric  eels,  make  wad- 
ing in  these  waters  extremely  dangerous  and  unpleasant. 
Yet  in  the  vicinity  of  Kalacoon,  the  perai  never  made  an  at- 
tack upon  man,  and  one  could  bathe  with  impunity.  A  few 
miles  up  river  this  would  have  been  suicide.  There  is  scarce- 


362 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 


FIG.  123.     PERAI 


ly  a  person  who  has  traveled  in  South  America,  who  fails  to 
bring  home  some  tale  of  their  depredations.  Col.  Roosevelt 
tells  how,  in  the  Matto  Grosso,  various  members  of  his  party 
were  bitten,  and  how  wounded  animals,  even  carmen,  are 
often  partially  devoured  before  they  can  be  recovered  from 
the  water  into  which  they  have  struggled  or  fallen  after  be- 
ing shot.  Larger  animals,  peccaries  and  even  tapirs,  are 
attacked  when  wounded  and  often  dragged  down ;  and  there 
are  frequent  cases,  where  persons,  idly  trailing  their  hands 
in  the  water  from  the  side  of  a  canoe,  have  lost  one  or  more 
fingers  from  the  cruel  jaws.  I  have  seen  large  wounded  birds 
pulled  under  when  only  a  few  feet  from  the  shore. 

The  tails  of  animals  seem  to  be  a  great  attraction.  Perai 
have  been  known  to  bite  the  tails  off  dogs  and  many  other 
beasts,  while,  according  to  imThurn,  the  tail  of  an  iguana 
is  a  morsel  of  the  utmost  delicacy.  Even  alligators  are  not 
exempt.  In  places  where  ducks  are  kept  it  is  said  that  only 
a  short  time  elapses  before  the  webs  of  their  feet  are  eaten 


NOTES   ON   PERAI  363 

away  and  sometimes  the  feet  themselves.  Certainly  the  mor- 
tality must  be  great  among  young  ducks,  both  wild  and  tame. 
Many  birds  are  caught  that  rest  too  long  on  the  water,  where 
they  pause  to  drink  or  snatch  a  pleasing  morsel  floating 
there.  Kingfishers,  darting  after  a  small  fish,  must  often 
go  down  never  to  come  up,  for  it  is  the  splash  that  attracts 
the  perai  instead  of  driving  them  away. 

Some  of  the  most  common  birds  along  the  river  front, 
near  Kalacoon,  are  the  various  kinds  of  kiskadees.  Perched 
on  the  topmost  twig  of  the  spider-legged  mangroves,  they 
peer  up  and  down  the  river  this  way  and  that,  and  dart  after 
swift  fleeing  insects  that  approach  too  near  their  point  of 
vantage.  The  prey  secured,  they  return,  or,  changing  their 
minds,  drop  down  to  a  spike  of  mucka-mucka  and  rest  upon 
the  broad  leaves,  where  a  closer  view  of  the  water  as  it  drifts 
slowly  by,  may  better  be  obtained.  Occasionally  their  atten- 
tion is  attracted  by  a  struggling  insect  that  floats  past,  fight- 
ing to  free  its  wings  from  the  impeding  water,  into  which  it 
accidently  has  fallen,  or,  perhaps  they  see  a  tiny  fish  playing 
near  the  surface.  Then  there  is  a  flash  of  wings,  a  slight 
splash,  and  the  bird  returns  to  its  perch  clicking  its  bill  and 
swallowing  contentedly. 

The  splash  is  often  its  undoing,  for,  at  the  sound,  a  dark 
body  moves  swiftly  through  the  water  and  the  kiskadee  is 
dragged  under  with  its  prey  still  struggling  in  its  bill.  The 
remnants  of  birds  have  many  times  been  found  in  the  stom- 
achs of  perai,  and,  a  short  time  ago,  I  took  from  one  nearly 
the  whole  body  of  a  freshly  killed  kiskadee. 

Nor  are  the  warm-blooded  animals  and  reptiles  their 
only  prey.  Not  every  day  are  they  fortunate  enough  to  seize 
a  bird  or  to  find  some  helplessly  maimed  animal  floundering 
in  the  water.  Their  true  food  is  living  flesh  and  their  crav- 
ing must  be  satisfied.  So  naturally  it  follows  that  they  war 
on  the  myriads  of  fish  that  swarm  the  rivers,  both  in  the  shal- 
lows of  the  mud-banks  and  sand-bars,  and  farther  out  in  the 
brown  water  of  the  deep  cut  channels.  Fish  are  the  daily 


364         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

menu,  while  the  incautious  beast  that  comes  within  their 
reach,  is  a  rare  toothsome  dessert. 

The  Indians,  morning  after  morning,  find  only  heads 
remaining  in  the  gill  nets,  or,  if  they  are  fortunate,  a  few 
partly  mutilated  fish.  Fishermen,  returning  from  a  day's 
sport,  tell  how  there  came  a  second  strike,  which  nearly  broke 
the  line,  when  their  captives  were  almost  to  the  surface. 
They  found,  upon  pulling  in,  most  of  the  tail  gone,  a  huge 
portion  taken  out  just  below  the  dorsal  fin,  or,  possibly  only 
the  head  of  their  catch  left. 

The  perai  war  not  only  upon  other  fish,  but  also  upon 
their  own  kind.  This  has  been  a  rather  disputed  question. 
Some  authorities  claim  that  they  will  never  attack  one  an- 
other; but  many  perai  have  the  webbing  nearly  gone  from 
their  tails  and  are  otherwise  scarred  about  the  body.  I  have 
caught  many  on  the  flesh  and  entrails  of  another.  Where 
food  is  plenty  this  may  not  occur,  but  it  certainly  is  true  on 
the  lower  Mazaruni.  If  one,  freshly  killed,  be  gashed  and 
torn  so  that  the  blood  flows,  it  will  be  set  upon  and  devoured 
as  quickly  as  if  it  were  a  warm-blooded  bird.  If  only  wound- 
ed, however,  its  sharp  teeth  and  strong  jaws  protect  it  until 
recovery  or,  worn  out  by  the  repeated  sallies  of  others,  until 
it  succumbs. 

The  taint  of  blood  in  the  water  drives  the  perai  blood- 
crazy  and  they  become  at  once  raging  savage  demons,  blindly 
attacking  anything,  no  matter  what,  from  which  comes  the 
flow  of  blood.  Thus  the  person  who  wishes  to  pass  through 
infested  waters  does  so  at  an  increased  risk  if  he  has  even  so 
much  as  a  small  wound  that  drips  blood.  He  must  move 
quietly  for  loud  splashing  attracts,  and  they  rush  and  strike 
on  an  instant. 

The  natives  near  Kalacoon,  while  they  fear  these 
scourges,  are  not  afraid  to  enter  the  water,  and  the  children 
play  around  the  shores  waist  deep  near  places  where  the  fish 
abound.  They  seldom  or  never  are  assailed,  for  the  fish  seem 
to  avoid  the  bathing  spots,  though,  perhaps  a  few  yards 


NOTES   ON    PERAI  365 

away,  many  agitate  the  surface  in  search  of  food  or  play. 
The  Indian  always  walks  into  the  water  with  care  and  quiet. 
He  is  careful  to  make  as  little  disturbance  as  possible  until, 
deep  water  reached,  he  launches  out  to  swim. 

Flesh  is  not  the  only  food  of  the  perai.  Dough  made 
from  rice  or  cassava  and  used  by  the  natives  to  catch  more 
gentle  fry,  is  an  article  of  relish.  Pieces  of  bread,  fruit  and 
seeds  have  all  been  found  in  their  stomachs.  In  one  locality, 
on  the  Essequibo  River,  there  is  a  large  citrate  factory,  which 
daily  uses  many  sacks  of  limes.  When  the  oil  is  extracted 
and  the  juice  squeezed  out,  the  skins  are  thrown  into  a  refuse 
heap  and  carted  to  the  river  edge.  Each  day,  for  more  than 
a  year,  they  have  been  dumped  into  the  river  at  the  same  spot, 
where  the  water  is  shallow.  But  a  large  heap  never  accu- 
mulates there.  Soon  after  the  splash  of  the  first  basketful, 
thousands  of  fish  gather  from  all  directions  and  actually 
churn  the  water  in  mad  struggles  to  get  at  the  refuse.  The 
seeds  seem  to  be  the  main  attraction,  for  they  are  the  first 
to  disappear ;  and  then  the  pulp  follows  more  slowly.  Final- 
ly the  rinds,  empty,  lightened  of  their  load,  drift  away  with 
the  current. 

Among  the  swarming  fish  dart  the  perai,  for  they,  too, 
love  the  seeds  and  the  pulp.  They  travel  a  clear  path,  for 
no  fish  cares  or  dares  to  face  these  marauders.  If  several 
"cartabacs"  are  wrangling  over  an  inviting  morsel,  they  drop 
it  quickly  without  any  hesitation,  and  the  water  pirate  fin- 
ishes the  meal  alone,  and  in  peace;  or  perhaps,  attacked  by 
another  of  his  kindred,  he  in  turn  drops  it  in  the  swift  battle 
that  ensues,  and  the  stolen  titbit  is  appropriated  by  a  third. 
And  so  it  goes  until  the  limes  are  exhausted,  and  the  first 
scatter  to  await  another  day. 

Perai  are  welcome  articles  of  food  to  the  natives,  but 
to  the  white  man  their  flesh  is  rather  soft,  and  has  a  slight 
muddy  taste,  while  there  is  a  great  abundance  of  bone.  Nev- 
ertheless, when  desirous  for  a  change  from  our  flesh  diet,  one 
of  us  would  take  a  rod  and  go  down  to  the  banks  of  the  river 


366         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

to  try  fisherman's  luck.  The  best  way  to  catch  the  perai, 
we  soon  found,  was  to  fish  from  a  boat  anchored  a-  few  yards 
from  shore,  where  the  mud  bars  shelved  steeply  down  into 
deep  water.  The  fish  seemed  to  swarm  along  this  steep  bank, 
while  fewer  splashed  about  in  the  shallows  nearer  the  forest 
clad  shore.  Usually  the  bait  was  the  flesh  and  entrails  of 
some  bird  or  animal,  though,  excellent  as  any,  were  the  en- 
trails of  the  fish  itself. 

It  was  best  to  use  a  long  line  with  the  bait  hanging  with- 
in a  few  inches  of  the  bottom.  The  usual  procedure  of  the 
fish  was  to  nibble  feebly  for  a  few  moments  and  then  strike 
and  strike  hard.  Sometimes  they  would  strike  without  any 
preliminary  warning. 

As  a  game  fish  it  is  not  one  that  will,  except  possibly 
for  a  few  moments,  delight  the  heart  of  the  angler.  After 
the  first  few  rushes  the  fight  is  over  and  the  fish  comes  meekly 
to  the  surface.  The  fisherman  must  be  careful  to  keep  a 
taut  line,  for,  at  the  slightest  slackening,  away  goes  the 
quarry;  he  must  strike  hard  to  make  fast  the  hook  for  the 
perai  has  a  mouth  of  bone,  against  which  the  point  turns  as 
if  made  of  lead,  or  snaps  off  like  the  head  of  a  match  struck 
too  hard  against  the  box.  A.  strong  wire  leader  must  be  used. 
Even  then,  I  have  seen  the  villainous  teeth  click  together  on 
a  piece  of  phospho-bronze  and,  as  easily  as  a  pair  of  wire 
nippers,  snap  it  in  two. 

The  fish  in  the  boat  is  nearly  as  bad  as  the  fish  in  the 
water.  One  must  be  very  careful  not  to  place  any  portion 
of  his  anatomy  too  near,  or,  with  a  flop,  the  perai  will  seize 
it.  He  seems  to  use  a  certain  amount  of  cunning.  If  a  fin- 
ger touches  his  body  he  will  not  make  a  motion  until  it  is 
within  reach  of  his  jaws.  Then,  with  a  twist  or  turn,  he 
snaps,  brings  his  teeth  together  with  a  sharp  click,  and  it 
goes  hard  with  the  finger  that  is  between  them. 

The  Indian  seldom  uses  a  hook  to  catch  them,  for  hooks 
fastened  to  ordinary  line  are  quickly  snapped  off,  and  they 
are  articles  of  too  great  value  to  be  lightly  thrown  away. 


NOTES   ON    PERAI  367 

He  uses  a  different  and  more  certain  method,  one  in  which  his 
forefathers  were  adept  hundreds  of  years  ago.  Paddling 
the  canoe  to  a  proper  spot,  he  holds  the  entrails  of  a  freshly 
killed  agouti,  tightly  fastened  to  the  end  of  a  long  stick, 
over  the  water  so  that  the  ends  trail  and  the  blood  spreads 
away  with  the  current.  The  perai,  its  appetite  aroused  by 
the  thin  taint  of  blood,  rushes  upstream  until  it  reaches  the 
dangling  treasure,  and  greedily  seizes  it.  Quickly  then,  for 
another  instant  would  see  the  mass  torn  away  from  its  hold 
on  the  stick,  comes  the  twang  of  a  bow-string;  the  fish  is 
transfixed  by  a  long,  hollow,  spear-like  arrow,  and  suddenly 
finds  itself,  twisting  and  biting,  with  others  of  its  kind  in  the 
bottom  of  the  wood-skin. 

There  are  other  uses  for  perai  beside  food.  A  lower 
jaw  with  its  saw-like  row  of  teeth  always  dangles  from  the 
woven,  pitch-covered  baskets  that  act  as  quivers  for  poisoned 
darts.  When  a  dart  is  prepared  for  action,  its  dark,  poisoned 
tip  is  nearly  severed  against  one  of  the  sharp  teeth,  so  that 
when  it  enters  the  body  of  its  victim,  the  point  breaks  oft' 
and  remains  to  do  its  work,  even  though  the  arrow  be  torn 
away. 


PART  III 

ENTOMOLOGICAL 

BY  PAUL  G.  HOWES 

RESEARCH    ASSISTANT 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  BEES  AND  WASPS  OF  BARTICA 

In  the  following  chapters,  treating  chiefly  of  solitary 
wasps,  I  have  endeavored  to  give  an  accurate  account  of  the 
more  intimate  aspects  of  the  lives  of  certain  of  these  insects. 
It  is  hoped  that  the  fascination  which  the  life  stories  of  these 
insects  holds  for  the  writer,  may  be  imparted  to  the  reader 
not  already  familiar  with  them. 

To  those  fortunate  ones  already  versed  in  the  events  of 
wasp  life,  I  can  only  say  that  Guiana  is  practically  a  new 
and  unsearched  field,  teeming  with  wonders  of  life  of  which 
very  little  is  known.  In  view  of  this  fact,  there  should  be 
something  of  interest  in  these  pages  both  to  the  layman  and 
to  the  experienced  entomologist. 

Before  taking  up  individual  studies  it  is  fitting  that  I 
should  give  a  brief  outline  of  the  conditions  of  wasp  life  in 
Bartica  district,  the  general  locality  in  which  all  of  my  insect 
observations  were  made.  These  observations  cover  a  period 
of  a  little  over  five  months  and  were  not  selected  because  of 
any  particular  facts  that  they  may  contain,  but  rather  be- 
cause they  were  just  whatever  I  was  successful  in  gathering. 
In  entomology,  one  life  appears  to  be  as  interesting  as  an- 
other. The  tiniest  creature  and  the  greatest,  are  as  one,  in 
the  secrets  they  hold  for  the  observer. 

During  the  period  of  actual  field  work,  from  February 
15  to  the  end  of  July,  I  found  one  hundred  and  seven  species 
of  bees  and  wasps  carrying  on  nesting  activities.  Sixty-eight 
of  these  were  solitary  wasps,  nine  social  wasps,  two  apterous 
Hymenoptera,  or  species  wingless  in  one  sex,  seven  were  soli- 
tary bees,  ten  social  bees  and  eleven  were  undetermined  bees 
and  wasps. 


372         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

FEBRUARY  MARCH     APRIL         MAY         JUNE          JUt* 


tit. 


FIG.  124.    CHART  OF  RAINFALL  IN  INCHES,  AS  CORRELATED  WITH  THE  NESTING  OF 
WASPS  AND  BEES  IN  BARTICA  DISTRICT. 

The  number  of  nesting  species  increased  steadily  with 
each  month,  reaching  the  highest  point  in  June,  after  which 
they  receded  gradually.  In  a  measure  they  followed  the 
course  of  the  rainy  season,  being  most  numerous  in  June  and 
July.  As  I  was  at  Bartica  only  half  the  month  of  February, 
I  cannot  give  an  accurate  figure  of  the  nesting  species.  How- 
ever, a  very  diligent  search  during  the  last  fifteen  days  of 
that  month  revealed  only  five  species,  and  while  I  am  con- 
vinced that  it  is  a  low  estimate,  March  showed  but  a  slight 
increase  and  my  figure  may  not  be  far  out  of  the  way. 

The  accompanying  chart  gives  a  rough  idea  of  the  num- 
ber of  nesting  wasps  and  bees  as  they  varied  in  relation  to 


BEES  AND  WASPS  OF  BARTICA  373 

the  rainfall.  It  will  be  noticed  that  in  April,  only  3.09  inches 
are  recorded.  This  is  far  below  the  usual  average  of  the 
month,  and  in  a  normal  year  the  curve  would  rise  steadily 
from  February  to  June. 

For  convenience  I  have  divided  the  one  hundred  and 
seven  species  into  six  general  divisions  according  to  their 
nesting  habitats.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  species  belonging 
to  all  but  the  sixth  division  have,  in  one  way  or  another,  taken 
advantage  of  changes  brought  about  by  man,  a  fact  that 
seems  to  me  remarkable  in  view  of  the  short  time  that  has 
elapsed  since  many  of  these  changes  have  occurred.  The 
divisions  and  number  of  species  belonging  to  each  are  as 
follows : 

1.  Nesting  only  in  trails 40  species 

2.  Nesting  in  trails  and  forest 18        " 

3.  Nesting  in  houses  or  outbuildings  18 

4.  Nesting  in  houses  and  in  open  trails 2        " 

5.  Nesting  in  houses,  trails  and  in  the  forest  5 

6.  Nesting  only  in  forest 18 

The  nesting  haunts  of  six  species  were  undetermined. 

No  attempt  will  be  made  to  give  a  list  of  these  one  hun- 
dred and  seven  species  in  the  present  work.  They  are  men- 
tioned only  with  a  view  to  give  an  idea  of  the  immense  field 
of  work  open  to  the  entomologist  in  Guiana.  I  have  made 
observations  of  one  kind  or  another  on  almost  all  of  these 
species,  but  the  data  accumulated  is  not  sufficiently  complete 
to  prepare  more  chapters  than  those  which  follow. 

I  found  exquisite  types  of  nests.  Some  were  like  tiny 
barrels  of  emerald  moss,  one  was  fashioned  from  wasp-made 
paper,  layed  on  in  strips  of  varied  colors,  others  were  invert- 
ed domes  of  sweet  smelling  resin.  Here  was  one  of  forest 
mould,  a  tube-like  structure  with  a  flared  entrance.  There 
were  tiny  purses  made  of  cob-webs,  plant  down  and  lichens. 
They  hung  on  spiral  stems  from  the  under  sides  of  leaves 
and  in  the  eaves  of  outbuildings.  Some  nests  were  mere  tun- 


374         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

nels  in  the  ground,  but  the  greater  number  were  of  mud  or 
clay.  There  were  groups  of  cells  of  various  shapes  and  di- 
mensions, plastered  in  a  great  variety  of  situations.  Many 
of  them  were  plain,  others  elaborately  decorated  with  hun- 
dreds of  tiny  spines,  each  fashioned  of  clay,  or  rounded 
domes  that  fitted  into  one  another  like  the  roofs  of  a  pagoda. 
I  found  series  of  miniature  earthen  jugs,  ten  or  twelve  placed 
in  an  irregular  line  and  often  of  colored  clay,  reminding  one 
of  a  group  of  tiny  pots  ready  for  the  baking.  There  were 
all  styles,  shapes  and  sizes  and  a  great  range  of  colors. 

Thus  working  in  Guiana  I  found  these  insects  in  a  va- 
riety of  roles  quite  new  to  me.  Their  nests  were  different ; 
there  were  no  cold  seasons  to  affect  nesting  activities ;  nesting 
periods  were  more  extended  and  the  creatures  themselves 
were  far  more  numerous  than  I  had  found  them  anywhere 
before.  It  was  often  difficult  to  keep  all  the  species  under 
constant  observation,  and  for  all  their  abundance  many  trou- 
bles were  experienced  in  following  out  their  life  histories. 

Intensive  insect  study  in  the  tropics  is  beset  by  many 
difficulties.  To  follow  out  a  life  history  successfully,  means 
not  only  securing  sufficient  material  for  study,  but  great  care 
in  the  handling  of  that  material.  Mortality  is  very  high 
among  larval,  or  young  wasps  and  bees.  They  are  extremely 
tender  and  subject  to  sickness  and  death,  from  seemingly 
negligible  factors.  Moisture  is  a  great  danger.  A  certain 
amount  is  necessary,  but  the  least  bit  too  much  in  the  grub's 
cradle  when  feeding  or  pupating  often  turns  a  healthy  bit 
of  life  into  a  black  putrid  mass  in  a  few  hours.  Too  much 
heat  or  direct  light,  are  other  dangers  to  be  reckoned  with. 
Sometimes  the  wasplets  are  injured  and  grow  abnormally 
from  causes  that  I  have  often  been  at  a  loss  to  explain. 
Molds  play  a  deadly  part,  but  tiny  red  ants  proved  the  great- 
est scourge  in  the  nursery  of  my  youngsters.  They  lurked 
about  ever  ready  to  swarm  in  over  the  nascent  insects.  They 
managed  somehow  to  become  suddenly  numerous  upon  ap- 
parently inaccessible  swinging  shelves.  They  crawled  in 


BEES  AND  WASPS  OF  BARTICA  375 

between  the  glass  and  cork  of  a  bottle,  tunneled  by  the  back 
way  into  wasps'  nests  of  solid  masonry,  wrecked  the  homes 
and  carried. off  the  inmates  in  a  thousand  separate  pieces! 
They  were  a  pest.  It  is  the  only  word  to  describe  these  vile 
little  creatures.  If  they  would  but  ravage  the  pantry  and 
leave  my  insects  alone,  what  a  comfort  it  would  be! 

My  only  course  was  to  construct  a  tiny  "incubator" 
with  wooden  legs  set  in  pans  of  oil.  In  this  the  young  wasps 
were  kept  in  glass  tubes  with  cotton  stoppers.  It  proved 
to  be  the  only  device  into  which  the  minute  pillagers  could 
not  set  foot.  At  length  after  repeatedly  having  my  work 
of  days  or  weeks  undone  in  a  few  moments;  after  many 
disappointments,  I  succeeded  in  rearing  a  few  of  my  charges 
successfully.  I  watched  the  mysteries  wrapped  about  their 
lives  unfold,  sawr  nature  hurl  them  through  her  steeplechase 
called  life  and  forgot  the  ants  in  the  revelation. 

My  gleanings,  however  meagre,  follow.  If  one  had  as 
a  task,  to  count  the  grains  of  sand  upon  a  glistening  beach, 
what  impression  would  one  make  in  a  day?  A  very  shallow 
one  to  be  sure,  but  deeper  than  the  one  I  have  made  in  the 
insect  life  of  Guiana.  Five  and  a  half  months  have  passed 
since  we  sailed  up  the  Mazaruni  River  to  Bartica,  I  to  my 
wasps  and  bees,  and  like  the  Counter  of  the  sand-grains,  I 
had  a  hopeless  sensation.  Now  it  is  late  July.  With  the 
entire  beach  still  before  me  I  have  counted — one ! 


CHAPTER  XXV 

TWO    POTTER   WASPS 

Genus  Eumenes 
Fig.  125;  1-8 

I  have  still  to  complete  the  life  histories  of  these  two 
wasps.  Several  facts  are  lacking,  which  is  unfortunate. 
But  on  the  other  hand  I  have  learned  much  of  interest  con- 
cerning them — sufficient,  I  think,  to  warrant  the  present 
chapter.  Beginning  with  the  red  Eumenes,  I  will  set  down 
what  I  know  of  each  species  after  a  few  preliminary 
comments. 

The  two  wasps  are  potters,  but  of  widely  different 
tastes.  The  red  or  larger  species  is  a  finished  artist  fash- 
ioning from  three  to  twelve  tiny,  flat-bottomed  jugs  each 
bearing  a  short  neck  and  finished  with  a  wide  flaring  lip. 
They  are  placed  in  straight  or  serpentine  rows  or  in  little 
circular  clusters  in  a  variety  of  situations.  Commonly  they 
are  cemented  to  exposed  timbers  on  the  walls  of  buildings. 
Others  produce  weird  looking  swellings  upon  table-legs  or 
window  cords  and  occasionally  one  finds  them  plastered  to 
a  bit  of  clothing  left  unused  for  a  day  or  two.  Color  in  the 
jugs  varies  greatly.  I  have  them  in  sombre  grey,  through 
many  shades  of  yellow  to  a  rich  red.  Their  delicacy  and 
beauty  rivals  that  of  hand-made  pottery,  but  in  form  the 
jugs  never  vary. 

The  smaller  or  buff  Eumenes  is  not  an  artist.  Her  jugs 
are  for  service  rather  than  display.  They  are  flattened  ob- 
jects shaped  like  a  kernel  of  corn  and  placed  one  upon  an- 
other in  an  irregular  pile.  Thus  the  finished  nest,  consisting 
of  four  or  five  of  these  rough  cells,  resembles  an  unkempt 
wad  of  clay.  It  is  plastered  to  the  underside  of  a  leaf  grow- 


VXX  JIHT'IAHO 


AJ     IV XX  flMT'I 
itos  e  JsaH     .-fT«J. 


CHAFER  XXV    TWO  POTTER  WASPS,  RED  EUMENES 

Red  Eumenes.  Solitary.  Nest  a  series  of  earthen  jugs,  each  containing  one  cell.  Stored  with 
•pan-worms.  Egg  hatches  in  two  days.  Larva  feeds  five  days.  Spins  flimsy  cocoon.  Pupates  nine 
days  after  feeding.  Emerges  twenty-three  days  after  pupating.  Complete  cycle  39  days. 

Genus  Kum.cnc9 


CHAPTER  XXV    TWO  POTTER  WASPS.    BUFF  EUMENES 

Buff  Eumenes.  Solitary.  Nest  a  series  of  flattened  jugs  placed  one  upon  another.  Each  jug 
contains  one  cell.  Stored  with  span-worms.  Egg  hatches  in  two  days.  Larva  feeds  seven  days 
Spins  flimsy  cocoon.  Pupates  eight  days  after  feeding.  Emerges  twenty-four  days  after  pupating. 
Complete  cycle  41  days. 


mi.'-hi'ii  artist  faslV 
•  >t  tomed  jugs  eadk 
>  .vi,   and  finished  with  a  wide  flaring  lij* 

CHAPTER  XXVI    LARVAL  SACRIFICE.    PODIUM  RUFIPES  FABR. 

Roach-killer.  Solitary.  Nest  a  series  of  clay  cells,  contained  in  long  tubes  made  of  clay.  Stores 
nest  with  small  roaches.  Egg  hatches  in  two  days.  Larva  feeds  five  days.  Spins  cocoon. 
Pupates  ten  days  after  feeding,  emerges  twenty-four  days  after  pupating.  Complete  cycle  41  days. 


red.     Their  deli 


CHAPTER  XXVII    THE  BLACK  REED- WASP.    TRYPOXYLON  CINEREOHIRTUM 
CAM. 

Black  Reed-wasp.  Neet  in  a  hollow  reed.  Three  cells  partitioned  off  with  clay  plugs.  Cells  stored 
with  small  spiders.  Egg  hatches  in  two  days.  Larva  feeds  four  days.  Spins  cocoon.  Pupates  ten 
days  after  feeding.  Emerges  twenty-two  days  after  pupating.  Complete  cycle  38  days. 


Larva 
2 


PLATE  I 


Pupa 


Imago 
4 


RED  EUMENES 


r 


BUFF   EUMENES 


ROACH  KILLER 


^ 


BLACK  REED-WASP  P.  G.  Howes,  '16 

FIG.  125.     LIFE  HISTORIES  OF  BARTICA  WASPS 


TWO  POTTER  WASPS  377 

ing  in  an  open  sunny  trail  or  fashioned  about  a  stem  of  razor 
grass,  which  swings  here  and  there  in  the  breeze.  Like  the 
finished  jugs  of  the  larger  species,  they  are  supplied  with  a 
flaring  lip,  but  the  neck  is  very  short — in  fact,  negligible. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  first  mentioned  wasp — the  fin- 
ished artist.  This  wasp  requires  one  day  to  complete  a  single 
jug.  That  is  to  say,  she  does  the  actual  building  in  four 
hours,  but  the  remainder  of  the  day  must  pass  before  pro- 
visions may  be  stored,  in  order  that  the  storeroom  may  be 
perfectly  dry.  In  building,  the  insect  approaches  the  site, 
carrying  a  pellet  of  mud  in  her  mandibles.  At  first  she  re- 
mains suspended  in  the  air  some  two  feet  from  the  scene  of 
operations.  Now  she  flies  here  and  there,  up  and  down,  to 
this  side  and  that,  always  with  her  head  towards  the  nest. 
Gradually  she  works  up  to  it  until  an  inch  or  less  away. 
Here  she  suspends  herself  once  more  for  a  few  seconds  before 
finally  alighting  directly  upon  the  building  site. 

The  pellet  is  placed  upon  the  surface  and  shaped  into 
a  tiny  ring,  one  or  two  millimeters  in  height.  From  this 
foundation  the  remainder  of  the  jug  is  constructed.  After 
this  initial  ring  or  foundation  is  in  place,  the  fresh  pellet 
is  always  deposited  on  its  inner  surface,  and  after  being 
somewhat  flattened  is  modelled  into  a  section  of  wall  by  the 
wasp's  mandibles  on  the  inside  and  her  fore-legs  on  the  out- 
side. The  method  is  as  though  one  were  modeling  a  minia- 
ture bowl  between  the  thumb  and  fore-finger. 

Each  jug  serves  as  a  nursery  for  a  single  wasplet  and 
is  provisioned  with  ten  span-worms.  They  are  prepared  by 
the  wasp  either  by  being  stung  into  paralysis  or  what  is  more 
likely,  are  slightly  crushed  from  end  to  end  by  the  wasp's 
mandibles.  The  nervous  system  of  the  caterpillar  is  spread 
out  through  its  numerous  segments  and  would  therefore  be 
difficult  for  the  wasp  to  reach  adequately  with  her  sting.  I 
have  seen  a  wasp  alight  with  her  prey  and  proceed  to  mouth 
it  roughly  in  a  dozen  different  places,  but  her  sting  was  never 
brought  into  use.  Further,  the  caterpillars  are  capable  of 


Photo  by  P.  G.  H. 


FIG.  126.    BUFF  EUMENES  RESTING  ON  HER  NEST 
Enlarged  twice. 


TWO  POTTER  WASPS  379 

excretion  even  when  stored  in  the  jugs,  a  process  which  par- 
alysis from  her  sting  would  be  likely  to  prevent. 

The  span-worms  are  pushed  into  the  jug  entrance  one 
by  one  from  the  outside.  Two  or  three  of  the  victims  are 
always  smaller  than  the  rest.  These  are  collected  first  and 
stuffed  in  next  to  the  elongated  bow-shaped  egg,  which  is 
cemented  by  its  posterior  end  to  the  wall  of  the  base  before 
it  is  quite  finished.  The  process  of  storing  requires  several 
days  and  meanwhile  the  egg  hatches  and  the  young  wasp, 
a  footless  maggot  of  thirteen  segments,  commences  to  feast 
upon  the  stores.  These  smaller  caterpillars  are  doubtless 
very  tender  and  therefore  easier  for  the  larva  to  consume 
during  its  first  hours  of  weakness.  The  jug  is  not  sealed 
by  the  parent  wasp  until  the  grub  is  at  least  a  day  old.  In 
eating,  the  youngster  consumes  the  entire  caterpillar,  scrap- 
ing the  interior  of  its  victim's  head  as  a  delicacy  and  in  its 
final  greed  consuming  even  its  hard  covering  of  chitin. 

The  egg  hatches  in  forty-eight  hours.  At  birth  the  grub 
measures  three  millimeters  in  length.  It  grows  very  rapidly 
reaching  its  full  length  of  sixteen  millimeters  in  five  days. 
In  shape  it  somewhat  resembles  the  abdomen  of  a  large  wasp 
and  is  made  up  of  thirteen  segments.  Its  head  consists  of  a 
pale  yellow  bead,  slightly  cleft  in  the  center  and  bearing  two 
heavy,  red-brown  mandibles  protruding  above  the  more 
fleshy  parts  of  the  mouth.  In  appearance  the  grub  reminds 
one  of  a  bull-dog  with  its  protruding  under  jaw.  For  ten- 
acity it  surpasses  even  this  king  of  the  canine  world,  clinging 
to  its  victim  with  a  grip  that  continues  for  five  whole  days, 
until  there  is  nothing  left  to  cling  to ! 

When  the  feast  is  over,  the  larva  lies  quite  motionless 
for  twenty-four  hours,  before  preparing  itself  to  await  pu- 
pation. These  preparations  are  rather  elaborate  and  require 
an  entire  day.  First  a  heavy  coat  of  silvery  mucous  is  ap- 
plied to  the  interior  of  the  jug.  It  is  brushed  over  every  bit 
of  the  concave  walls  with  minute  care.  Only  the  lower  part 
of  the  grub's  mouth  is  brought  into  use,  the  mandibles  re- 


380 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  by  P.  O.  H. 

FIG.  127.     DETAILED  VIEWS  OF  EARTHEN  JUGS  MADE  BY  THE  RED  EUMENES 
Top,  natural;  lower  one-half  natural  size. 

maining  unfolded,  as  though  now  obsolete.  There  is  a 
strange  motion  to  what  might  be  termed  the  larva's  lips,  as 
the  silvery  fluid  oozes  out.  The  performance  reminds  me  of 
a  person  rinsing  the  mouth  and  at  the  same  time  spurting  out 
the  water.  The  fluid  hardens  in  contact  with  the  air  into  a 
tough  protecting  lining.  This  process  is  followed  by  the 
spinning  of  a  delicate  cocoon,  rather  flat  and  oval  in  shape, 
which  encloses  the  larva,  and  also  excludes  the  excretia 
which,  as  I  have  said,  the  caterpillars  were  still  capable  of 
passing  off.  There  are  now  three  layers  between  the  outer 
world  and  the  larva.  The  jug  becomes  a  fort  in  which  the 
grub  lies,  protected  by  a  wall  of  masonry  and  hardened  mu- 
cous, followed  by  a  covering  of  silken  thread. 

Eight  days  after  spinning,  pupation  takes  place.  It  is 
an  oddly  shaped  creature  which  emerges  from  the  larval 
body.  In  color  it  is  lemon  yellow.  The  thorax  is  horizontal, 
the  petiole  or  waist  oblique  and  the  abdomen  more  or  less 
perpendicular.  This  curious  shape  is  entirely  lost  in  the 
mature  wasp,  which  is  a  normal  insect,  but  its  evidence  in  the 
pupa,  which  requires  a  much  broader  space  than  the  common 


TWO  POTTER  WASPS  381 

long  and  narrow  type,  not  only  explains  why  the  larva  spins 
its  flat  and  oval  cocoon,  but  also  why  the  parent  wasp  re- 
quires these  globular  nurseries  for  her  offspring. 

Here  I  must  drop  the  history  of  the  red  Eumenes.  Al- 
though her  rows  of  pots  were  everywhere  about  the  walls 
and  timbers  of  Kalacoon  Laboratory,  only  one  or  two  were 
occupied  during  the  five  months  of  our  stay.  The  remainder 
were  old  ones  from  which  the  wasps  had  issued.  From  the 
abundance  of  old  nests  and  the  entire  absence  of  their  build- 
ers, I  concluded  that  their  chief  nesting  season  comes  some- 
where between  the  months  of  September  and  February. 

The  smaller  potter,  the  buff  Eumenes,  nests  in  March, 
constructing  from  four  to  five  cells  of  yellowish  clay.  They 
are  at  first  distinct,  flattened  jugs,  shaped  like  an  army  wa- 
ter canteen.  Later  as  additional  cells  are  added,  placed  here 
and  there  at  random,  the  individual  jug  loses  its  identity  in 
the  mass  of  clay  and  the  nest  becomes  a  very  commonplace 
object. 

This  wasp  flies  to  a  point  some  distance  above  her  nest, 
then  in  a  spiral  she  descends  with  her  burden.  When  build- 
ing, this  is  a  tiny  pellet  of  clay  which  is  deposited  and  very 
carefully  kneaded  into  proper  shape  by  the  wasp's  head  and 
fore  legs.  Many  stones  and  bits  of  hard  material  project 
from  the  mortar  of  the  nest,  making  it  an  impregnable  re- 
fuge for  her  young.  She  builds  rapidly,  every  fifteen  min- 
utes, bringing  a  pellet,  which  is  moulded  so  carefully  into 
the  growing  nursery  that  save  for  its  darker  color,  due  to 
moisture,  the  new  work  could  not  be  distinguished  from  the 
old. 

A  thorough  inspection  of  her  work  takes  place  after 
every  load  of  clay  is  incorporated  in  the  nest.  Every  scrap 
of  the  edifice,  the  old  as  well  as  the  new  is  gone  over  minute- 
ly doubtless  in  search  of  flaws,  however  tiny,  that  might 
afford  an  entrance  for  the  ovipositor  of  the  ever-ready  para- 
sites. Sometimes  even  the  grass  stem  or  whatever  the  nest 
support  may  be,  is  likewise  closely  inspected  both  above  and 


Photo  6y  P.  O.  If. 


FIG.  128.  NEST  OF  BUFF  EUMENES 

Showing  finished  cells  and  one  open  and  ready  for  storinjr. 

One  and  one-half  times  life  size 


TWO  POTTER  WASPS  383 

below  the  cells.  This  close  scrutiny  is  observed  throughout 
the  labor  of  building.  Nothing  is  left  to  itself — there  is  no 
tolerance  of  carelessness.  Thus  the  insect's  work  in  all  its 
outward  roughness,  stands,  a  lasting  monument  to  its  ma- 
ternal love. 

A  single  jug  or  cell  is  completed  in  thirty  hours.  When 
two-thirds  finished,  an  oily  white  egg  is  deposited  and  fas- 
tened to  its  inner  wall.  The  cell  is  of  necessity  never  finished 
until  the  egg  is  placed,  but  a  few  loads  of  mortar  after  the 
laying  complete  the  body  of  the  jug.  The  flared  lip  about  the 
entrance  is  then  fashioned  from  the  outside,  after  which  the 
nursery  is  ready  to  be  provisioned. 

The  caterpillar  victims  are  brought  in  one  by  one. 
There  are  twenty-two  in  all,  of  what  I  take  to  be  larvae,  ei- 
ther of  Tinied  or  Pyralidina  moths.  They  are  pink  or  green, 
eight  or  nine  millimeters  in  length  and  two  millimeters  thick, 
which  is  just  the  diameter  of  the  hole  left  in  the  jug. 

Storing  the  cell  is  a  much  more  leisurely  process  than 
building.  The  wasp  visits  her  nest  about  once  an  hour,  usu- 
ally bringing  a  caterpillar,  wrhich  she  stuffs  into  the  cell  with 
a  motion  similar  to  that  of  a  dog  nosing  earth  over  a  bone. 
Occasionally  she  returns  empty-handed,  and  I  wonder  that 
it  is  not  oftener.  It  is  winter  in  the  tropics  and  caterpillars 
are  indeed  scarce.  One  might  hunt  all  day"  and  perhaps  find 
one,  yet  the  wasp's  sense  of  smell  is  so  highly  developed  that 
she  readily  finds  twenty-two  for  each  of  her  cells. 

The  storing  finished,  the  wasp  sometimes  stops  work 
for  an  entire  day.  I  have  found  her  thus,  with  folded  wings, 
quietly  resting  upon  her  nest.  Indeed,  there  is  no  need  of 
hurry  now.  If  the  egg  within  the  cell  hatches  there  is  plenty 
of  food  for  the  grub,  enough  to  bring  it  safely  to  maturity. 
There  are  dangers  of  course.  Parasites,  or  ants  would  carry 
off  the  contents  of  the  open  cell,  but  her  presence  prevents 
attack.  Later  the  hole  is  plugged  with  a  pellet  of  mud  flat- 
tened out  until  little  trace  of  the  opening  remains.  The  wasp 
continues  to  visit  her  nest  even  when  no  more  cells  are  to 


384         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


Photo  by  I'.  <;.  II. 

FIG.  129.    FOUR  JUGS  OF  THE  RED  EUMENES  OPENED  TO  SHOW  CONTENTS 

a.  Half-grown  Larva.     6.  Full-grown  Larva,     c.  Larva  changing  to  Pupa.     d.  Pupa. 

Enlarged  twice  life  size. 

be  constructed.    This  continues  for  a  day  or  so,  but  at  length 
she  abandons  it  to  the  care  of  fate. 

The  egg  hatches  in  forty-eight  hours,  giving  place  to 
the  usual  Hymenopteron  grub  of  thirteen  segments.  It  is 
rather  transparent  and  of  a  yellowish  white  which  rapidly 
turns  to  pink  or  greenish,  according  to  the  color  of  its  food, 
and  is  later  lost  again.  At  birth  its  head  is  very  round,  and 
distinct  from  the  body,  being  darker  in  color  and  supplied 
with  mandibles  that  tear  into  the  first  caterpillar  that  comes 
handy. 


TWO  POTTER  WASPS  385 

It  grows  rapidly,  doubling  in  size  in  three  days,  and  in 
one  week  it  is  five  times  its  original  length  and  full  grown. 
Twenty-two  caterpillars  in  one  week  is  not  a  bad  feast  for 
so  small  a  creature,  yet  the  bulk  of  the  eater  and  the  eaten  is 
approximately  the  same. 

Upon  finishing  the  last  caterpillar  the  grub  rests  for 
twenty-four  hours  before  coating  the  interior  of  its  cell  and 
spinning  its  cocoon,  a  process  quite  similar  to  that  employed 
by  the  other  potter  of  this  chapter.  Transformation  follows 
a  week  after  spinning,  bringing  to  light  a  yellow  pupa  not 
as  oddly  shaped  as  that  of  the  red  Eumenes. 

Its  thorax,  waist  and  abdomen  are  a  closer  approach 
to  a  straight  line.  It  therefore  requires  proportionally  less 
room  and  its  cell  is  flattened  and  otherwise  constructed 
accordingly. 

Here  as  with  the  red  species,  I  must  drop  the  wasp 
at  pupation.  With  all  my  care  and  repeated  trials  I  was  un- 
successful in  rearing  the  species  to  maturity.  I  found  it  sim- 
ple enough  to  hatch  the  eggs,  rear  the  grub  and  observe 
pupation,  but  beyond  that  point  I  remain  in  darkness.  On 
the  eve  of  emergence,  my  priceless  pupae  shrivelled  and  died, 
and  who  can  say  why? 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

LARVAL  SACRIFICE 

Fig.  125;  9-12 

It  is  strange  what  a  vast  array  of  facts  are  disclosed 
through  the  study  of  the  unintelligent  invertebrate.  I  am 
thinking  particularly  of  insects,  dominant  creatures  of  the 
earth,  into  whose  life-secrets  and  lore  man,  through  his 
wretched  span  of  years  may  scarce  become  a  trespasser. 
They  are  set  apart,  almost  in  another  world,  vastly  wise 
and  ruled  by  an  iron  discipline  that  has  wrought  their 
world  empire  of  today.  My  attitude  toward  the  insect  is 
that  of  a  pupil  under  a  great  master,  who,  unable  ever  to 
reach  the  altitude  of  his  mind,  must  be  content  to  set  forth  his 
simplest  teachings.  No  matter  where  I  look,  my  master  is 
there,  a  superior  being  who  appears  to  have  risen  far  above 
me.  From  his  instinctive  throne,  he  looks  down  pityingly 
upon  my  intelligence,  I  who  must  put  two  and  two  together 
and  work  my  poor  brain  so  hard  to  understand  his  simplest 
problems. 

Words  fail  to  tell  adequately  of  what  I  see  in  the  world 
of  insects.  Then  again  there  is  much  that  I  fail  to  under- 
stand anyway,  as  a  consolation  for  the  missing  words,  but 
occasionally  I  have  just  a  faint  glimmer  of  what  is  trans- 
piring before  my  eyes.  Thus  I  shall  skip  briefly  over  the  life 
history  of  a  wasp  I  call  the  roach-killer,  Podium  rufipes 
(Fabr.),  to  the  subject  of  this  chapter. 

The  roach-killer  is  a  solitary  mason  wasp,  who  has  taken 
advantage  of  man's  intrusion  into  her  domain.  His  houses 
and  buildings  afford  safer  quarters  for  her  nest,  which  orig- 
inally she  cemented  to  the  concave  sides  of  stumps  or  forest 
trees.  Now  she  has  partly  abandoned  the  old  sites  for  the 
immovable  wooden  shutters  of  tropical  civilization,  where 


LARVAL  SACRIFICE  387 

her  rough  red  columns  of  clay  stand  for  years  as  monuments 
over  the  birth  beds  of  her  offspring. 

The  nest,  a  single  column  of  clay  two  and  a  half  to  four 
inches  in  length  and  close  to  three-quarters  of  an  inch  in 
diameter,  consists  of  a  series  of  V-shaped  layers  placed  side 
by  side.  The  entrance  to  the  nursery  faces  toward  the 
ground.  Inside  it  is  divided  into  several  ten  by  twenty 
millimeter  cells,  never  exceeding  four  in  number,  which 
compared  with  the  exterior,  are  quite  smooth  and  polished. 

Here  is  an  interesting  fact :  If  the  wasp  has  chosen  her 
original  habitat  among  the  stumps,  she  abandons  it  when 
finished  as  an  inconspicuous  grey  blotch  that  blends  nicely 
with  its  surroundings.  In  the  forest  she  finds  no  red  or 
orange  clay  for  building  material.  The  swamps  yield  a  rich 
brown  and  the  brook  banks  a  shade  of  grey.  The  nest  is  of 
necessity  sombre  in  color.  On  the  other  hand,  the  nests 
placed  in  the  shutters  of  houses  were  all  of  rich,  orange-red 
clay,  collected  from  a  nearby  excavation  in  the  trail.  They 
were  conspicuous  objects  to  say  the  least,  but  the  wasp 
quickly  covered  her  fresh  paint  with  a  neatly  arranged  layer 
of  termite's  wings,  cast  off  spider's  skins  and  other  bits  of 
refuse.  At  first  I  put  the  occurence  down  as  accidental,  but 
careful  examination  leads  me  to  believe  that  it  is  a  regular 
habit  of  the  wasp,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  not  a  square  milli- 
meter of  the  underlying  clay  showed  through  the  veil.  When 
the  nests  were  finished  they  appeared  old  and  disused. 

Each  cell  is  usually  provisioned  with  four  wood  roaches. 
Upon  the  last  one  placed  in  the  cell  a  single  white  egg,  with 
a  yellow  median  line,  is  deposited.  It  is  thrust  under  the  fore 
leg  of  the  roach,  where  the  leg  joins  the  insect's  body.  It  is 
a  tender  spot  where  the  young  wasp,  two  days  later,  may 
easily  bury  its  head  in  the  creature's  flesh.  The  number 
of  roaches  in  a  cell  varies  according  to  their  aggregate.  Thus 
a  cell  may  contain  two  medium  and  one  very  large  insect, 
or  six  small  ones,  and  while  there  is  variation  in  the  number 


FIG.  130.     ROACH-KILLER 
Showing  gradual  transformation  of  Larva 

to  Pupa. 
Twice  life  Size 


I'hoto  by  P.  O.  H. 

FIG.  131.    PUPA  OF  THE  ROACH-KILLER 
Just  after  the  transformation  from  the 

Larva. 
Six  times  life  size 


LARVAL  SACRIFICE  389 

of  victims,  the  total  bulk  and  food  value  of  each  cell's  con- 
tents remain  the  same. 

Two  days  after  the  egg  is  deposited  and  the  cell  sealed 
up  with  clay,  the  young  roach-killer  hatches.  It  is  but  a  tiny 
grub  of  thirteen  segments,  two  millimeters  in  length,  rather 
transparent  and  concerned  only  with  its  mouth  and  digestive 
tract.  For  two  days  it  gorges,  selecting  only  the  tenderest, 
juiciest  parts  of  its  victims,  leaving  the  legs  and  other  less 
nutritious  parts  untouched.  On  the  fifth  day  of  its  exist- 
ence, it  returns  to  these  left-overs,  going  over  and  over  them 
until  all  nourishment  is  gone. 

One  hears  the  glutton  plainly  at  its  feast.  Sip-sip-sip, 
comes  the  rythmic  sound.  Its  entire  body  throbs  in  unison 
as  the  greedy  creature  dives  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  grab 
bag  of  the  roach's  anatomy.  In  five  days  the  feast  is  over. 
The  wings,  egg  cases,  shells  of  the  heads  and  thorax,  together 
with  the  hard  limb  skeletons  of  the  roaches  are  left  uneaten 
in  the  end.  They  lie  about  the  cell  in  fine  disorder  as  lasting 
evidence  of  the  grub's  revelry. 

Immediately  upon  finishing  the  repast,  the  larva  con- 
structs a  network  of  silken  threads,  just  enough  to  prevent 
its  rolling  about.  Within  this  cradle  an  inner  cocoon  is 
formed,  composed  of  threads  much  more  densely  spun,  and 
finally  coated  within  with  a  reddish  brown  fluid  that  hardens 
in  contact  with  the  air,  into  a  brittle  skin.  The  process  of 
spinning  and  coating  requires  eighteen  hours  for  completion 
after  which  the  larva  excretes  the  waste  from  its  five-day 
gorge  in  a  single  mass  at  one  end  of  the  cocoon. 

Spinning  over,  there  comes  a  ten-day  pause  in  the  crea- 
ture's activity,  during  which  time  we  shall  witness  the  Lar- 
val Sacrifice.  This  process,  known  as  pupation,  is  in  many 
respects  the  strangest  and  most  wonderful  of  all  physiolog- 
ical transformations  that  take  place  in  the  insect  world.  We 
will  see  the  grub  which  in  reality  is  but  the  ancestral  form 
of  the  wasp,  transformed  by  what  we  might  call  a  "second 
birth,"  from  its  lowly  worm-like  body  into  an  utterly  differ- 


390         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

ent  and  highly  specialized  member  of  the  topmost  order  of 
modern  insects. 

We  have  traced  the  larva  from  the  time  the  parent  wasp 
deposited  it  as  a  tiny  egg  upon  the  roach's  body.  We  have 
watched  its  growth  from  day  to  day  and  observed  how  it 
tackles  one  victim,  consumes  it,  searches  out  a  second  then 
a  third  and  fourth ;  how  it  eats  the  tender  portions  first  and 
returns  later  to  coarser  fare.  Its  actions  are  almost  those  of 
a  creature  conscious  of  its  life  and  appetite  which  thinks 
only  of  its  stomach  and  so  many  good  things  to  be  consumed. 
But  the  minute  the  repast  is  over,  and  the  cocoon  spun,  we 
see  this  energetic  and  ravenous  bit  of  life  cease  all  outward 
activities. 

From  young  to  full-grown  larva,  the  creature  is,  in  a 
measure,  master  of  itself.  It  moves  about  in  the  cell  of  its 
own  accord,  feeds  itself  copiously  and  rests  if  need  be,  but 
thereafter  it  must  surrender  to  an  incomprehensible  power, 
an  invisible  surgeon  who  will  anesthetize  the  grub,  tear  down 
its  old  body  and  bring  forth  a  new  and  better  creature  from 
the  havoc  of  his  scalpel. 

During  the  operation,  many  of  the  larval  organs  and 
tissues  are  entirely  done  away  with,  and  at  the  same  time 
many  parts  of  the  new  insect  are  derived  from  them.  There 
is  no  spilling  of  blood,  no  suffering,  no  consciousness  of  what 
is  taking  place  within  the  larval  skin.  From  the  exterior 
we  see  nothing  to  hint  of  what  is  transpiring.  All  is  serene 
during  the  ten  days  that  the  operation  requires  for 
completion. 

This  strange  process  of  "second  birth,"  (I  have  no  ade- 
quate term  for  it) ,  is  known  in  creatures  other  than  insects. 
From  the  blood  and  tissue  of  the  horse,  the  foetus  is  pro- 
duced, and  eventually  born.  It  arrives  quite  like  the  parent 
except  for  minor  details.  Without  radical  changes  it  feeds, 
lives  and  grows  to  maturity.  In  the  chicken  we  have  the  egg, 
then  the  young,  different  at  birth  from  the  parent,  but  rap- 
idly growing  to  resernble  it,  upon  the  addition  of  food  to  the 


LARVAL  SACRIFICE  391 

youngster's  stomach.  In  the  wasp  we  have  an  egg,  followed 
by  a  grub  that  is  unable,  simply  by  eating,  to  become  like  its 
parent.  Something  more  radical  is  necessary,  a  complicated 
bit  of  surgery  which  will  knock  down  the  larval  house  and 
raise  an  imago  from  the  ruins ! 

Thus  in  ten  days  after  the  larva  spins  its  cocoon  we  see  a 
slight  shrinking  of  the  body.  A  depression  just  off  center 
follows.  There  is  a  tremor,  ever  so  slight,  then  slowly  the 
whole  perfect  insect  unfolds  from  the  grub  like  a  nascent 
flower  from  its  bud.  It  may  require  a  million  years  for  proc- 
esses of  evolution  to  become  established  into  a  train  of  events, 
yet  here  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  by  watching  this  won- 
derful transformation  from  grub  to  pupa,  we  have  actually 
witnessed  the  ancestral  form  sacrificing  itself  to  a  modern 
one! 

The  processes  that  bring  about  such  radical  changes  in 
the  insect  are  known  as  histolysis  and  histogenesis.  The 
former  covers  the  breaking  down  and  disintegration  of  the 
larval  tissues  and  the  latter  the  building  of  the  new  body, 
in  part  independent  of  the  old  material.  There  is  little 
known  of  these  strange  performances,  yet  it  appears  to  be 
the  general  belief  that  for  the  most  part,  the  perfect  insect 
is  developed  chiefly  from  the  skin  cells  of  the  larva.  There- 
fore, I  shall  set  forth  what  I  have  been  able  to  gather  through 
the  logic  of  observation,  about  this  point.  I  make  my  state- 
ments guardedly — simply  as  facts  that  appear  to  have  been 
overlooked. 

A  yacht  is  built  and  launched.  She  serves  admirably 
as  a  pleasure  craft  and  is  quite  satisfactory  for  that  purpose. 
War  is  declared.  She  is  commandeered  by  the  government 
for  patrol  duty  and  must  be  altered  to  meet  new  require- 
ments. She  is  dry-docked,  fitted  with  guns,  more  powerful 
engines  are  installed  and  lastly  she  is  painted  battle  color. 
Later  the  craft  appears  once  more  upon  the  water.  Altered 
tremendously,  the  old  hulk  still  serves  the  fundamental  pur- 
pose. It  is  much  the  same  with  the  insect.  The  larval  wasp 


392         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

is  commandeered  by  nature.  She  must  be  fitted  to  meet  new 
conditions  in  order  to  perpetuate  her  race.  Thus  the  task 
devolves  upon  Histolysis  the  wrecker  and  Histogenesis  the 
builder. 

During  the  period  of  larval  growth,  from  the  time  it 
hatches  until  the  provisions  in  the  cell  are  entirely  consumed, 
the  grub  rids  itself  of  no  waste  matter  whatever.  Unlike 
the  larva  of  the  butterfly  that  excretes  every  few  minutes 
as  it  eats  during  the  days  of  its  worm  life,  the  young  wasp 
waits  until  its  stores  are  gone  and  its  cocoon  spun  before 
passing  off  the  waste  of  its  five-day  gorge.  Even  then  it 
waits  another  day  for  the  event,  finally  depositing  it  in  a 
single  mass  at  the  lower  pole  of  the  cocoon.  A  few  days 
later  pupation  takes  place. 

In  the  days  which  pass,  between  excretion  and  pupa- 
tion, no  foreign  matter  appears  within  the  cocoon.  The 
insect  is  motionless ;  its  cradle,  save  for  the  hardened  mass  at 
one  end  is  scrupulously  clean.  I  remove  this  mass,  float  it 
out  in  a  little  water  and  subject  it  to  a  thorough  inspection 
under  the  microscope.  It  contains  bits  of  chitin,  hairs  and 
fragments  of  claws,  all  however,  fragments  of  the  deceased 
roaches.  There  is  nothing  unusual  in  the  array,  no  bits  of 
larval  anatomy,  no  fragments  of  the  grub  itself.  What  then 
becomes  of  the  material  that  Histolysis  is  supposed  to  dis- 
poil?  Are  the  skin  cells  all  of  the  grub's  anatomy  that  serve 
to  build  the  wasp? 

I  cut  open  the  body  of  a  grub,  three  days  after  the  co- 
coon is  spun.  The  greater  part  of  it  runs  through  the  inci- 
sion as  a  smooth,  pasty  liquid  amorphous  in  every  way.  At 
eight  days,  I  open  a  second  grub.  Now  it  is  partly  paste, 
but  mostly  wasp ! 

The  laborers  of  Histolysis  are  not  altogether  wreckers 
then.  They  are  concerned  more  with  tearing  down  the  old 
timbers,  removing  the  rusty  nails,  puttying  the  holes  and 
handing  them  back  to  the  equally  skillful  employees  of  His- 


LARVAL  SACRIFICE  393 

togenesis,  who  in  turn  rebuild  the  house  along  more  modern 
lines. 

Twenty-four  days  after  pupation  the  insect  issues  from 
the  cocoon,  drills  a  neat  hole  through  the  wall  of  its  nurs- 
ery and  emerges  into  the  sunlight  a  perfect  insect.  Be- 
hind her,  she  leaves  a  few,  very  tiny  pellets  of  white  excretia. 
These  are  the  rusty  nails  from  the  old  structure.  They  are 
all  I  can  find  of  the  larval  body  that  is  not  incorporated  in 
the  new. 

Fruit  from  the  tree  of  instinctive  wasp-love,  the  new- 
born insect  is  only  an  ato'm  in  the  world,  but  what  a  bundle 
of  unsolved  mysteries  to  the  humble  student  of  her  secrets! 
At  her  "second  birth,"  she  becomes  her  own  mother!  Not 
content  with  skin  cells  alone  as  building  material,  Histolysis 
and  Histogenesis  have  rebuilt  the  Huntress  from  herself. 
She  flies  into  the  world  with  a  fresh  coat  of  paint,  remodeled, 
a  thing  brought  up  to  date,  but  somewhere  underneath,  lie 
the  old  timbers,  reshaped  and  sawn  to  meet  the  new  plan! 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE  BLACK  REED- W ASP 

Trypoxylon  cinereohirtum  Cam. 

Where  man  has  felled  the  primitive  forest,  obliterating 
nature's  labors  of  half  a  thousand  years,  he  leaves  a  wound 
that  is  long  in  healing.  Just  as  a 'wound  in  the  flesh  leaves 
a  scar  that  stands  out  distinct  from  its  surroundings,  so  the 
forest  heals  its  injury  with  a  new  vegetation,  distinct  from 
itself,  but  a  mask  nevertheless  to  the  ghastly  wound  lying 
beneath. 

We  call  the  mask  secondgrowth.  It  is  made  up  of  trum- 
pet trees,  weakly  shoots  from  fallen  forest  giants,  great 
waves  of  razor-grass,  briars,  various  types  of  undergrowth 
and  here  and  there  a  patch  of  canes  whose  hollow  stems  are 
the  natural  nesting  sites  of  the  black  reed-wasps. 

Abandoning  their  natural  habitat  for  the  advantages 
afforded  by  Kalacoon,  they  flocked  to  our  hospitable  board, 
setting  up  their  abodes  in  our  pen-holders,  in  spools,  nail 
holes,  in  the  handle  of  my  shaving  glass  and  in  fact,  in  any- 
thing that  suggested  a  hollow  tube  with  a  tiny  diameter. 

To  the  general  rule  among  Hymenoptera  the  black 
reed-wasps  are  an  exception.  That  is  to  say,  they  are  neith- 
er social,  in  the  usual  community  sense  of  the  word,  nor 
are  they  solitary.  They  came  in  mated  pairs  in  search  of 
nesting  sites,  inspecting  all  the  best  holes  in  the  house  with 
great  care  and  deliberation.  Like  so  many  newly  married 
couples,  filled  with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  novel  project,  they 
roamed  about  among  the  improved  property  that  Kalacoon 
offered.  To  facilitate  my  studies  of  their  life  history,  I  placed 
several  pieces  of  glass  tubing,  three  or  four  inches  long  and 
a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  about  the  laboratory.  I 


BLACK  REED  WASP 


395 


Photo  l>v  P.  G.  H. 
FIG.  132.     BLACK  REED-WASP 

a.  &  b.  Male  wasp  guarding  entrance  to  nest.     c.  Glass  tube  containing  nest,  provisions  and  egg 
Natural  size. 

inserted  the  tubes,  which  were  closed  at  one  end,  into  paste- 
board boxes,  leaving  the  open  end  of  each  projecting,  so  that 
the  entrances  were  in  plain  view,  but  the  main  part  of  the 
passages  were  quite  dark,  within  the  boxes.  Thus  I  made 
conditions  in  the  tubes  exactly  like  those  of  the  reeds  that 
the  insects  naturally  chose  for  their  nests. 

They  were  an  instant  success,  and  within  an  hour  or 
two,  all  were  occupied  by  enthusiastic  couples.  In  the  glass 
nests,  I  could  watch  everything  that  went  on.  All  that  was 
necessary  for  me  to  do  in  order  to  observe  the  occupants' 
behavior,  was  to  remove  the  box  covers,  and  replace  them 
when  I  had  finished. 


396         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

True  to  the  tradition  of  wasp  history,  the  female  pro- 
ceeds with  the  hard  labor  of  nest  building  and  providing  for 
her  family.  The  male,  while  he  never  actually  takes  part  in 
the  work,  sits  menacingly  in  the  entrance,  during  his  mate's 
absence,  guarding  the  nest  from  intruders  of  the  same  spe- 
cies that  are  ever  ready  unbidden  to  acquire  a  partly  pre- 
pared home.  He  shows  great  interest  in  the  work,  following 
the  female  into  the  tunnel,  watching  closely  whatever  she 
may  be  doing  and  squeaking  continually  in  a  high  pitched 
key  by  vibrating  his  wings.  This  is  a  common  habit  among 
many  wasps  during  the  work  hours,  but  the  species  in  ques- 
tion omits  this  strange  little  rasping  sound  during  almost  all 
of  its  occupations.  I  interpret  it  as  an  expression  of  pleas- 
ure or  well-being,  like  a  man  who  whistles  at  his  job.  The 
sound  is  never  heard  during  fright  or  anger,  but  of  this  I 
shall  treat  in  another  chapter. 

Upon  occupying  a  tube,  the  female's  first  procedure  is 
to  place  a  plug  of  solid  mortar  in  the  end  of  it,  doubtless  to 
prevent  parasites  and  ants  from  entering.  This  plug  is  two 
millimeters  in  thickness  and  composed  of  wet,  light  gray  clay. 
It  dries  in  a  few  hours,  hardening  into  a  tough  cement.  Next 
to  this,  a  second  plug,  one  millimeter  in  thickness,  is  placed, 
containing  more  moisture  than  the  first  and  of  a  much  dark- 
er shade.  This  is  followed  by  a  third  one  of  the  same  de- 
scription, placed  five  or  six  millimeters  in  front  of  the  sec- 
ond plug,  so  that  there  is  an  air  space  between  them  which 
holds  moisture  in  the  nest.  The  tube  is  now  provisioned  with 
small  spiders  of  different  species,  varying  from  five  to  eight 
in  number,  which  are  paralyzed  by  the  wasp's  sting  and 
brought  in  one  by  one.  They  are  packed  tightly  into  the 
tube  by  the  insect's  broad  head  which  is  brought  into  use  as 
a  sort  of  ramrod.  The  tube  is  a  tiny,  muzzle-loader,  into 
which  she  packs  her  living  wads  without  mercy. 

Upon  the  side  or  apex  of  the  last,  and  usually  the  larg- 
est, spider's  abdomen,  she  deposits  a  milky-white,  bow- 
shaped  egg,  two  millimeters  in  length.  It  is  less  than  one- 


BLACK  REED  WASP  397 

quarter  as  wide  as  long  and  closely  resembles  a  sausage.  The 
spiders  and  the  egg  are  now  enclosed  in  a  substantial  cell 
averaging  twenty  millimeters  in  length,  by  the  insertion  of 
a  double  plug  of  mortar,  six  millimeters  in  thickness,  half 
of  damp,  dark-colored  clay  and  half  of  the  hard  lighter  ma- 
terial. The  nest  is  now  abandoned  by  the  parent  wasps  who 
often  start  immediately  to  provision  a  second  one. 

In  two  days  the  egg  hatches,  bringing  to  light  a  yellow- 
white  grub  of  thirteen  segments.  It  commences  feeding  at 
once  upon  the  spiders,  a  process  which  may  be  observed  un- 
der the  lens  as  a  series  of  ripples  or  waves,  commencing  just 
behind  the  head  and  continuing  the  entire  length  of  the 
body, — one  wave  being  completed  or  spent,  before  the  fol- 
lowing one  sets  in.  It  grows  rapidly,  but  very  steadily,  in- 
creasing each  day  in  the  same  ratio  until  the  last  twenty-four 
hours  of  feeding,  when  it  gains  somewhat  less  than  during 
the  previous  days.  In  all  the  larva  or  grub  is  full  grown  in 
four  days  from  the  time  it  hatches. 

Upon  finishing  its  meal,  which  lasts  continuously  for 
four  days,  the  larva  spins  a  flimsy  net  work  of  silken  threads 
inside  of  which  the  cocoon  proper  is  spun.  This  inner  cocoon 
resembles  a  tiny  torpedo,  rounded  at  both  ends  and  ten  milli- 
meters in  length.  It  is  very  neatly  constructed  of  delicate 
silk  and  coated  all  over  the  interior  with  a  brown  varnish  that 
hardens  in  contact  with  the  air. 

Within  this  delicate  cradle  ten  days  later,  the  budding- 
wasp  undergoes  pupation — that  wonderful  process  described 
more  fully  in  the  previous  chapter — by  which  the  footless 
grub  is  transformed  from  a  low  and  ancient  form,  to  the 
highest  order  of  modern  insects.  The  actual  change  from 
gorged  grub  to  a  neatly  folded,  but  colorless  wasp  is  affected 
in  ten  days,  but  it  still  has  three  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
hours  of  confinement  separating  it  from  the  light  of  day, 
hours  which  must  be  passed  quietly,  lest  injury  result. 

As  the  hours  go  by,  color  at  length  flows  through  its 
body  and  appendages,  transforming  opaque  yellow  to  glis- 


398         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

tening  black.  Then  comes  the  final  gift  of  nature,  the  power 
of  motion.  The  nascent  creature  moist  with  birth,  bursts  its 
cocoon,  gnaws  through  the  plug  of  mortar  and  issues  into  the 
outer  world,  a  perfect  insect.  Only  thirty-eight  days  have 
passed  since  I  placed  the  tubes  in  the  laboratory,  and  since 
the  parents  of  this  new  creature  arrived,  realizing  their 
destiny. 

There  is  an  interesting  problem  to  solve  concerning  the 
black  reed-wasps.  Their  nests  vary  considerably  in  number 
of  cells.  Some  are  complete  with  one,  others  contain  two, 
but  the  majority  are  complete  only  after  an  egg  has  been 
laid  upon  the  stores  in  three  separate  compartments.  The 
question  arises,  how  will  the  wasps  emerge  as  perfect  insects 
without  disturbing  one  another? 

If  the  nest  is  to  shelter  three  insects,  the  cell  farthest 
from  the  entrance  will  naturally  receive  the  first  provisions 
collected,  and  it  would  seem,  in  due  time,  the  first  egg  de- 
posited. The  remaining  two  cells  would  receive  their  re- 
spective contents  in  the  order  of  their  position,  but  the  first 
egg  laid,  naturally  hatches  before  the  others.  The  grub, 
reaches  maturity,  pupates  and  is  ready  to  emerge  sometime 
ahead  of  its  sisters  in  the  other  cells.  What  happens  then? 
Does  the  issuing  wasp  burrow  its  way  out  through  the  cells 
in  front,  upsetting  in  its  passage  the  vital  condition  of  soli- 
tude that  surround  the  younger  insects?  Does  it  burrow 
through  the  clay  plugs,  separating  each  nursery  and  as  a 
final  act  of  vandalism,  leave  the  nest  open,  exposing  its 
younger  sisters  to  the  first  parasite? 

So  it  would  seem,  but  such  a  course  would  be  contrary 
to  all  the  laws  of  nature.  She  does  not  destroy  her  children 
needlessly,  yet  I  wonder  what  happens  in  such  nests  as  that 
of  the  black  reed-wasp,  whose  oldest  child  seems  farthest 
from  the  door  to  freedom! 

Perhaps  the  parent  wasp  is  gifted  with  the  power  of 
laying  eggs  that  require  varied  terms  of  incubation.  In  the 
first  cell  provisioned  she  lays  an  egg  that  requires  three  days 


BLACK  REED  WASP  399 

to  hatch,  in  the  middle  cell  one  that  requires  two  days  and 
in  the  outer  cell  the  egg  hatches  in  a  day  and  a  half.  The 
theory  would  straighten  out  the  difficulty  very  nicely.  The 
insects  would  emerge  in  turn  without  disturbing  one  another 
and  all  would  be  well,  but  a  theory  is  no  better  than  a  guess. 
Moreover  a  little  careful  observation  of  the  glass  tubes  yields 
the  correct  and  simple  answer  to  the  question. 

I  watch  a  wasp  entering  one  of  the  tubes  carrying  a 
spider  which  is  held  tightly  beneath  her  body.  She  enters, 
stores  the  game,  squeaks  about  it  to  her  watching  mate,  and 
is  off  again  in  search  of  a  second  victim.  She  does  not  rest 
after  placing  eight  spiders  in  the  tube,  yet  this  is  the  maxi- 
mum number  for  a  single  cell.  Instead,  the  work  continues 
during  most  of  the  day  without  interruption. 

In  the  afternoon  I  open  the  box  containing  her  nest. 
The  tube  contains  twenty  spiders  separated  into  three  little 
groups  by  half  partitions  of  clay.  Upon  the  abdomen  of  a 
large  spider  in  each  group  she  has  deposited  an  egg.  Now 
I  close  the  box  and  await  her  return.  She  arrives  laden  with 
a  tiny  ball  of  clay  in  her  mandibles,  enters  the  nest  for  a  mo- 
ment and  then  flies  off  minus  her  burden. 

At  the  end  of  an  hour  the  operation  has  been  repeated 
twenty  times.  Now  she  commences  to  close  the  entrance 
with  the  same  material.  The  job  requires  ten  more  loads  of 
mortar,  but  it  is  completed  rapidly.  By  evening  she  has  left 
the  nest,  I  presume  for  good  and  all,  and  for  the  last  time 
I  pry  into  her  secrets. 

It  is  all  very  clear.  In  a  single  day  she  has  accumulated 
the  entire  amount  of  provision  necessary  to  provide  her  three 
offspring  and  separated  them  into  distinct  groups.  Further 
she  has  constructed  half  partitions  that  keep  the  stores  sep- 
arate, but  still  permit  her  to  pass  from  one  end  of  the  nest 
to  the  other.  Thus  she  is  enabled  to  deposit  her  three  eggs 
in  different  departments  of  the  nest,  all  on  the  same  day. 
The  laying  over,  she  has  only  to  finish  the  half  partitions 


400         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

with  a  few  loads  of  clay,  plug  the  entrance  and  her  work  is 
completed. 

She  has  deposited  all  her  eggs  within  an  hour  and  they 
are  safe  in  isolated  cells.  The  three  will  pass  through  their 
metamorphosis  as  one.  They  will  eat  and  grow  and  pupate 
together,  and  issue  into  the  world  almost  at  the  same  moment. 
Thus  the  black  reed-wasp  solves  the  problem  very  simply. 
She  brings  her  offspring  into  the  world  as  triplets ! 


PLATE  II 


Egg 


Larva 
2 


Pupa 
3 


Imago 


WHITE-FOOTED  WASP 


FOREST  SHELL-WASP 


ONE-BANDED  DAUBER 


BLUE  HUNTRESS  p.  G.  Howes,  '16 

FIG.  133.     LIFE  HISTORIES  OF  BARTICA  WASPS 


CHAPTER  XXVIII    WHITE-FOOTED  WASP.    TR  YPOXYLON  LEUCOTRICHIUM 
ROHMER. 

White-footed  Wasp.  Solitary.  Nest  in  hollow  reed.  Three  cells  partitioned  off  with  mud  plugs. 
Each  cell  stored  with  four  spiders.  Egg  hatches  in  two  days.  Larva  feeds  five  to  six  days, 
spins  cocoon.  Pupates  eighteen  days  after  feeding.  Emerges  twenty-one  days  after  pupating. 
Complete  cycle  46-47  days. 


CHAPTER  XXIX    FOREST  SHELL  WASP.    ZETHUSCULUS  HAMATUS  ZAV. 

Forest  Shell  Wasp.  Solitary.  Nest  of  mosa.  Two  cells  provisioned  with  caterpillars.  Egg  hatches 
in  two  days.  Larva  feeds  five  days/-  Spins  no  cocoon.  Pupates  twelve  days  after  feeding. 
Emerges  twenty-one  days  after  pupating.  Complete  cycle  40. days. 


CHAPTER  XXX    THE  ONE-BANDED  DAUBER.    SCELIPHRON  FISTULARE 
DAHLB. 

One-banded  Dauber.  Solitary.  Nest  a  group  of  mud  cells,  provisioned  with  spiders.  Egg  hatches 
in  three  days.  Larva  feeds  six  days.  Spins  cocoon.  Pupates  ten  days  after  feeding.  Emerges 
twenty  days  after  pupating-.  Complete  cycle  39  days. 


CHAPTER  XXXI    THE  BLUE  HUNTRESS.    CHLOR1ON  NEOTROPICUS  KOHL 

Blue  Huntress.  Solitary.  Nest  a  group  of  coarse  clay  cells  set  one  upon  another.  Each  cell 
provisioned  with  one  large  spider.  Egg  hatches  in  two  days.  Larva  feeds  five  days.  Spins  cocoon. 
Pupates  ten  days  after  feeding.  Emerges  twenty-one  days  after  pupating.  Complete  cycle  38  days. 


•A  Hi  ri.''-FOt.;TKl> 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE   WHITE-FOOTED    WASP 

Trypoxylon  lencotrichium  Rohmer 

An  alert  business-like  insect,  deep  steel  blue  with  a 
white  band  encircling  each  of  her  hind  tarsi,  the  white-footed 
wasp  is  readily  recognized.  She  inhabits  the  hot  open  trails 
where  bamboo  grass  has  been  slashed  in  clearing,  leaving 
here  and  there  a  severed  hollow  stem  hanging  in  mid-air  and 
supported  by  the  plant's  shriveled  leaves  which  catch  among 
other  foliage.  These  hollow  tubes  supply  the  insect's  favor- 
ite nesting  sites,  unapproachable  from  below  except  by 
winged  enemies. 

The  reed  which  the  wasp  had  chosen  had  been  severed 
by  a  knife  slash  so  that  its  end  was  sliced  off  at  a  gentle  angle. 
It  hung  four  feet  above  the  ground  in  a  heavy  patch  of  bam- 
boo grass  with  its  open  end  pointing  toward  the  earth.  Sev- 
eral other  open  reeds  of  the  same  character  surrounded  it, 
appearing  to  me  very  much  the  same.  Not  so  to  the  wasp, 
however,  she  differentiated  at  once  and  upon  returning  from 
her  journeys,  flew  directly  to  the  reed  of  her  choice.  There 
was  no  uncertainty  in  her  approach,  no  repeated  trials  to 
find  the  proper  entrance.  A  straight,  single  flight  from  the 
outer  world  to  her  tube  marked  her  arrival.  What  a  con- 
trast to  the  clumsy  one-banded  dauber  who  wastes  her  pre- 
cious time! 

I  first  found  the  white-footed  wasp  gathering  a  ball  of 
soggy  clay  in  a  pitfall  trap  in  the  trail  leading  to  the  forest. 
Several  of  these  holes^ad  been  excavated  and  for  their  in- 
tended purpose  of  catching  frogs,  toads  and  the  smaller  ro- 
dents they  were  perhaps  less  productive  than  they  were  of 
wasps.  The  pits,  after  a  rainfall,  often  contained  several 


402         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

inches  of  water.  When  bailed  out,  a  pasty  layer  of  clay 
would  be  left  in  the  bottom  of  each.  This  material,  a  ready 
made  mortar,  proved  attractive  to  a  number  of  wasps,  which 
used  mud  in  the  construction  of  their  nests.  Tiny  little  reed- 
wasps,  medium-sized  ones,  big  blue  huntresses,  daubers  and 
a  dozen  others  collected  at  this  abundant  public  property. 
Here,  side  by  side,  they  gathered  their  building  material, 
all  laboring  in  a  great  common  design  for  the  welfare  of 
their  race  in  the  future. 

The  wasp  brought  several  loads  to  her  tube,  scraping  it 
up  from  the  floor  of  the  pitfall  and  carrying  it  in  little  glo- 
bules to  her  doorway.  Once  within,  a  high-keyed  squeaking 
and  buzzing  would  continue  until  the  clay  was  thoroughly 
kneaded  into  a  safety  plug  at  the  upper  end  of  the  reed. 
Her  trips  between  nest  and  pit  were  continued  for  nearly 
an  hour,  like  a  hod-carrier  laboriously  plying  between  mortar 
box  and  masonry.  After  many  trips  back  and  forth  she 
disappeared,  returning  in  a  little  less  than  half  an  hour  with 
a  limp,  paralyzed  spider. 

The  victim,  a  medium-sized  creature,  was  richly  colored 
and  patterned  in  various  shades  of  brown.  Its  body  was 
quite  small,  measuring  six  millimeters  in  width,  but  the  legs, 
all  of  which  were  intact,  were  long  and  rather  cumbersome 
to  the  wasp.  With  her  burden  she  flew  directly  to  the  en- 
trance of  her  nest.  She  alighted  with  difficulty,  then  turning 
about  and  grasping  the  spider  by  one  of  its  palpi  she  en- 
deavored to  enter  the  reed  backwards.  All  went  well  for  a 
time.  The  victim's  cephalothorax  and  fore  legs  caused  no 
trouble,  but  its  abdomen  caught  at  once  upon  the  sharp  edge 
of  the  reed,  which  tapered  almost  to  a  point.  From  this 
point  the  spider  would  not  budge — and  what  is  more,  was  in 
great  danger  of  being  punctured.  Had  the  wasp  pulled  too 
hard  it  certainly  would  have  been  impaled  on  the  reed  and 
ruined  for  future  use. 

Here  I  witnessed  a  most  skilful  performance.  Clinging 
to  the  interior  of  the  reed  with  only  her  two  posterior  claws, 


WHITE-FOOTED   WASP  403 

the  wasp  lowered  the  spider  very  carefully  and  deliberately 
until  its  entire  body  swung  free  in  the  air.  Here,  clasped 
tightly  in  the  wasp's  strong  mandibles,  it  was  held  by  its  two 
front  legs,  and  rotated  so  that  its  abdomen  came  into  the 
position  so  lately  held  by  the  cephalothorax.  Then  walking 
backward  up  the  tube  the  wasp  succeeded  in  bearing  her  vic- 
tim to  its  last  resting  place. 

As  I  have  already  stated,  the  wasp  seeks  out  spiders 
which  although  of  moderate  size,  possess  long,  slender  legs, 
and  there  is  a  simple  significance  in  her  choice.  The  wasp's 
nest  is  a  hollow  reed  whose  smooth  perpendicular  walls  end 
abruptly  in  space.  Her  front  door  gapes  in  the  void  and 
must  be  approached  from  below.  The  spider's  body  alone 
is  considerably  smaller  than  the  diameter  of  the  tube.  Thus 
were  the  wasp  to  choose  a  short-legged  victim  it  would  drop 
from  the  nest  at  the  instant  of  release.  The  long  legs  of  her 
spider  are  doubtless  burdensome,  yet  they  are  a  necessity 
to  the  success  of  her  work.  In  drawing  them  into  the  reed, 
their  legs  fold  back  between  abdomen  and  reed,  filling  the 
intervening  space  so  nicely  that  the  entire  creature  remains 
wherever  the  wasp  places  it. 

Four  of  these  spiders  are  allotted  to  each  of  the  three 
cells,  which  are  separated  as  the  wasp  provisions  them,  with 
plugs  of  clay  three  millimeters  in  thickness.  Upon  the  side 
of  the  largest  spider  in  each  cell,  a  three-millimeter  egg  is 
deposited.  It  is  slightly  bowed,  just  enough  to  fit  the  curve 
of  the  spider's  abdomen,  slightly  elongated  at  one  end  and 
about  the  color  of  skimmed  milk. 

The  three  cells  vary  considerably  in  size.  One  measures 
three  inches,  another  two  and  the  third  is  an  inch  and  three- 
quarters  long.  For  these  differences  I  can  see  no  reason. 
So  long  as  there  are  three  cells  in  the  tube  the  wasp  is  appar- 
ently quite  satisfied  to  place  her  divisions  at  random. 

The  egg  hatches  in  forty-eight  hours,  resulting  in  the 
characteristic  wasp  grub  of  thirteen  segments.  It  commences 
feeding  at  once  upon  the  stored  spiders,  first  drawing  off  the 


404         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

soft  parts  and  later  returning  to  less  delicate  food.  During 
the  first  day  of  its  life  the  larva  grows  only  two  millimeters. 
On  the  second  and  third  days  it  averages  five  millimeters 
each.  On  the  fourth  it  goes  back  to  two,  grows  eight  on  the 
fifth  and  finishes  with  a  growth  of  one  millimeter  on  the  sixth 
and  last  day  of  its  meal.  The  spiders  are  now  entirely  con- 
sumed and  the  grub  measures  twenty-six  millimeters  in 
length. 

Without  pausing  for  a  moment  to  rest,  the  full-grown 
larva  now  sets  about  to  lay  the  foundations  of  its  elaborate 
cocoon.  The  insect  is  awkwardly  placed  at  the  outset,  living 
as  it  does  in  a  cell  whose  perpendicular  walls  are  several 
times  its  own  length,  but  fortunately  at  this  period  of  its 
life  it  is  endowed  with  an  unusually  tacky  skin.  This  sticki- 
ness serves  a  special  purpose,  enabling  the  grub  to  remain 
safely  in  the  top  or  center  of  its  cell  without  the  slightest 
danger  of  tumbling  down  to  the  mortar  plug  separating  it 
from  the  cell  below. 

From  its  lofty  position  and  in  total  darkness,  the  grub 
first  throws  out  several  bands  of  silk,  fastening  them  in  vari- 
ous places  about  the  reed  walls.  It  makes  no  choice  of  its 
own,  but  simply  fastens  each  successive  thread  to  the  first 
point  of  contact.  Some  of  the  strands  pass  to  points  above 
the  spinner,  some  below  and  still  others  across  the  middle 
of  its  body  to  the  wall  beyond.  At  length  the  grub  finds 
itself  more  or  less  enclosed  in  a  delicate  silken  net  through 
the  strands  of  which  it  may  still  poke  its  head. 

Thirty  or  forty  new  threads  are  now  extended  from  the 
top  of  the  growing  cocoon.  They  emerge  from  various  points 
in  a  circle,  and  are  fastened  to  the  cell  wall  above.  The  larva 
now  returns  to  its  original  network,  within  which  it  spins  a 
firm  torpedo-shaped  covering,  slightly  wider  than  its  own 
body,  nineteen  millimeters  in  length  and  open  at  the  upper 
end.  Through  this  opening  a  ring  of  silk  is  spun,  two  milli- 
meters in  height,  with  a  scalloped  edge,  the  point  of  each  scal- 
lop forming  one  of  the  thirty  or  more  strands  extending 


WHITE-FOOTED   WASP  405 

above  the  cocoon.  The  open  top  is  now  closed  and  reinforced 
with  silk,  the  strands  crossing  and  recrossing  in  every  imag- 
inable direction  so  that  the  cocoon  now  appears  in  the  shape 
of  a  stubby  cigar  with  an  inverted  parachute  at  one  end. 
The  strings  of  the  parachute  extend  above,  where  they  are 
fastened  to  the  reed,  thus  suspending  the  entire  cradle  in  the 
center  of  the  cell. 

The  cocoon  is  now  strongly  supported  from  above.  It 
hangs  perpendicularly  in  the  hollow  reed,  head  up,  and  no 
matter  how  the  larva  thrashes  about,  there  is  no  danger  of 
falling.  Two  or  three  hours  after  the  last  silken  thread  has 
been  spun,  the  grub  continues  its  work,  this  time  coating 
the  entire  inner  surface  of  its  cradle  with  a  transparent  or 
slightly  yellowish  fluid.  A  certain  amount  of  this  is  brushed 
directly  upon  the  walls  as  it  oozes  from  the  creature's  mouth, 
but  for  the  most  part,  the  grub  expectorates  it  upon  its  own 
ventral  surface.  From  here  it  is  caused  to  flow  over  its  en- 
tire body  by  a  strange  series  of  muscular  contractions.  The 
operation  is  repeated  over  and  over  until  the  writhing  crea- 
ture is  thoroughly  moistened  by  the  secretion.  As  the  grub 
expands,  contracts  and  turns  its  segments,  the  liquid  becomes 
incorporated  with  the  silk  of  the  cocoon,  wetting  it  thorough- 
ly on  the  outside. 

It  is  a  varnish  with  strange  properties  that  the  larva 
employs, — a  sort  of  cement  which  will  adhere  only  to  certain 
objects.  When  secreted  it  is  transparent  or  nearly  so.  It 
amalgamates  at  once  with  the  silk  and  hardens  in  contact 
with  the  air  into  a  skin,  purplish  brown  in  color  and  brittle, 
like  the  inner  covering  of  a  peanut.  Strange  to  say  it  does 
not  adhere  to  the  larva,  nor  turn  color  until  compounded 
with  the  other  material  of  which  the  cocoon  is  made. 

The  entire  process,  of  spinning  and  varnishing,  requires 
two  full  days.  The  grub  then  expels  a  large  pellet  of  waste, 
the  accumulation  of  six  days  of  feeding,  in  the  bottom  of  the 
cocoon.  This  hardens  rapidly  into  a  solid  cake  in  a  few  hours. 
Sixteen  days  later  pupation  takes  place. 


406 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


Now  comes  the  period  of  absolute  quiet  during  which 
time  the  insect  receives  its  color,  which  appears  first  in  the 
eyes  and  gradually  flows  throughout  the  body  and  its  ap- 
pendages. The  process  requires  some  fifteen  days.  This  is 
followed  by  a  six-day  period  before  the  perfect  insect 
emerges,  to  lay  the  cornerstone  of  a  new  generation. 


Photo  by  P.  O.  It. 
FIG.  134.    COCOON  OF  WHITE- 
FOOTED  WASP,  SHOWING  ITS 
ELABORATE   CONSTRUCTION. 
Slightly  enlarged. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE   FOREST    SHELL-WASP 

Zethucculus  hamatus  Zav. 
Fig.  133;  5-8 

How  early  one  thing  begins  to  support  another  in  the 
jungle!  Even  the  infant,  thread-like  air  root,  new  born 
from  the  parent  liana,  sustains  a  spiral  of  fairy  moss  and 
later  a  tiny  emerald  wasp's  nest,  fashioned  from  the  ribbon 
of  the  sporophyte.  The  great  cool  jungle  reminds  me  of  a 
jig-saw  puzzle,  the  pieces  of  which  are  its  life,  entwined 
and  ingrown,  each  using  another  for  its  own  particular  suc- 
cess and  to  complete  its  part  in  the  great  green  picture.  A 
giant  liana  supported  by  a  still  greater  tree,  thread-like  off- 
spring supported  by  the  liana,  fairy  moss  living  upon  the 
thread  roots,  wound  in  its  turn  into  the  hoop-like  walls  of  an 
insect  nursery.  Here  at  least  are  five  fragments  of  the  great 
puzzle  we  see  fitted  together. 

The  nursery  which  belongs  to  the  shell  wasp  of  the  for- 
est reminds  me  of  two  algae-grown  snails,  one  clinging  to 
the  slender  stalk,  the  other  to  its  sister's  tapering  shell.  In 
reality,  the  two  shells  are  the  cells  of  the  nest  fashioned  from 
the  ribbon-moss  which  grows  upon  the  air-root.  It  is  very 
delicate  material.  One  must  look  sharply  in  order  to  see 
that  it  is  a  thing  separate  from  the  mere  thread  that  supports 
it.  Peeling  off  the  ribbon,  the  wasp  winds  it  into  little  hoops, 
one  upon  the  other  and  cements  it  together  with  her  own 
personal  glue.  The  building  material,  when  dry,  is  tough 
and  quite  waterproof.  Some  twenty  hoops,  half  a  millimeter 
in  width,  complete  each  cell  and  the  freshly  made  nest  gives 
off  an  emerald  sheen. 

In  each  cell  a  stumpy,  slightly  bowed  egg  is  laid,  two 
and  a  half  millimeters  long  and  a  third  as  wide.  It  is  yellow 


Plioto  l>u  P.  G.  H. 

FIG.  135.    THE  FOREST  SHELL- WASP. 

a.  Nest  suspended  on  a  delicate  air- root.    (Enlarged  about  thrice).        b.  Opened  nest  show- 
ing: egg.     (Enlarged  seven  times).         c.  Full  grown  Larva.  (Enlarged  seven  times). 


FOREST  SHELL-WASP  409 

in  the  center,  fading  to  a  transparent  white  at  either  end. 
The  yellow  center  is  in  reality  the  young  wasp,  and  the  trans- 
parent end  the  extremities  of  the  film-like  egg-shell.  The 
eggs  are  laid  one  at  a  time,  that  is  to  say,  the  wasp  deposits 
in  one  cell,  waits  for  it  to  hatch,  then  provides  the  young  with 
sufficient  food  to  bring  it  to  maturity  and  plugs  the  cell  with 
moss  before  laying  the  second  egg. 

Its  chosen  prey  is  doubtless  small  caterpillars,  for  I 
found  three  uneaten  heads  in  a  cell  containing  a  full-grown 
larva.  The  egg  is  attached  to  the  roof  of  the  cell  by  its  pos- 
terior end  near  the  back,  and  hangs  downward.  Thus  the 
young  wasp  hatches  with  its  head  in  mid-air. 

The  mother  wasp  guards  her  cells  closely  during  the 
period  of  incubation,  often  resting  within  the  cell  containing 
the  new  laid  egg.  She  crawls  to  the  entrance  on  the  roof 
of  the  nest,  then  turning  round,  backs  in,  clinging  to  the  un- 
derside of  the  roof.  Her  head  peering  out,  with  its  antennae 
waving  here  and  there,  adds  to  the  illusion  of  the  nest  being 
the  shell  of  a  snail. 

The  two  nests  on  which  this  life  history  is  based  were 
found  on  May  14,  in  the  deep  forest.  One  of  them  I  lost, 
but  let  us  go  back  to  that  day  and  the  remaining  nest.  If  I 
leave  it  upon  its  swaying  air  root  for  further  observation,  I 
will  probably  never  find  it  again.  It  blends  perfectly  with 
the  emerald  surroundings,  a  tiny  object  in  a  part  of  the  for- 
est that  I  have  visited  but  once.  Therefore  I  will  carry  it 
home  to  the  laboratory  just  as  it  is,  and  put  myself  in  diffi- 
culties at  once. 

The  first  cell  contains  a  full-grown  larva  and  the  second 
is  empty,  save  for  a  single,  freshly  deposited  egg.  The  lar- 
va is  quite  satisfactory.  It  has  finished  its  meal  of  cater- 
pillars and  will  soon  pupate,  giving  me  much  desirable  in- 
formation and  no  trouble.  But  what  of  the  egg?  If,  true 
to  the  rule  which  is  usual  among  solitary  wasps,  it  will  be- 
come a  hungry  living  grub  in  forty-eight  hours,  how  then 
shall  I  feed  it?  I  have  not  given  the  parent  wasp  a  chance 


410         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

to  store  provisions  for  her  larva,  yet  I  am  responsible  for 
the  orphan. 

The  young  of  solitary  wasps  are  fed  on  a  variety  of 
material,  but  spiders  and  caterpillars  seem  to  be  most 
frequently  chosen  as  provender.  This  I  know  from  experi- 
ence gained  in  the  examination  of  a  great  many  nests.  In 
the  light  of  the  present  difficulty  it  may  prove  a  valuable 
bit  of  knowledge.  The  victims  are  stored  within  the  cells  in 
a  paralyzed  condition  from  which  they  never  awake.  If 
they  were  killed  outright,  they  would  soon  putrify  in  the 
cells,  contaminate  the  budding  wasp  and  turn  the  healthy 
nursery  into  a  colony  of  lepers.  Therefore  instinct,  the  great 
teacher  of  insects,  guides  the  wasp's  sting  only  into  the  vic- 
tim's nervous  centers.  The  creature,  so  treated,  passes  into 
a  comatose  condition  and  lies  powerless  to  move  or  struggle 
while  the  young  wasp  sucks  at  its  viscera.  This,  then,  is  my 
grewsome  course:  I  must  catch,  artificially  paralyze  and 
present  living  food  to  the  shell-wasp's  grub  if  I  am  to  rear 
the  orphan  successfully. 

A  search  for  caterpillars  of  the  proper  description  is 
entirely  unsuccessful.  They  must  be  minute,  soft  and  with- 
out hair  upon  their  bodies  or  the  youngster  will  die  of  indi- 
gestion. Moreover  it  is  the  off  season  for  them  and  unlike 
the  wasp  I  cannot  find  them  by  the  sense  of  smell.  There- 
fore as  an  experiment  I  substitute  spiders  for  the  proper 
diet  of  span-worms.  Spiders  are  abundant  and  easily 
paralyzed. 

The  nervous  system  of  a  spider  is  concentrated  in  a  mass 
of  ganglions  gathered  about  the  oesophagus.  It  lies  in  the 
cephalothorax,  or  in  that  section  of  the  creature  which  is 
foremost,  there  being  but  two  divisions. 

I  secure  my  first  victim  from  its  web  in  the  window 
corner.  It  is  a  long-legged  creature  with  a  good  plump  body, 
soft  and  unprotected.  With  a  little  chloroform,  I  anaesthet- 
ize it,  just  long  enough  to  keep  the  creature  quiet.  As  soon 
as  it  is  still,  I  clip  its  legs  off  quite  short,  then  with  a  very 


FOREST  SHELL-WASP  411 

slender  needle  I  stab  the  cephalothorax  in  two  places,  once 
from  above,  once  from  below.  My  object  is  to  reach  the 
ganglions  mentioned  above,  thereby  injuring  them  with  my 
needle  and  producing  a  sort  of  paralysis  in  the  spider.  The 
experiment  works  well  enough.  The  victim  quivers  for  a 
moment,  then  lies  motionless.  With  my  crude  sting,  repre- 
sented by  the  needle,  I  have  imitated  as  closely  as  possible 
the  methods  employed  by  the  parent  wasp  in  preparing  food 
for  her  offspring. 

Now  I  place  the  spider  in  the  cell  just  under  the  sus- 
pended unhatched  egg  of  the  wasp  and  await  developments. 
In  two  days  the  young  wasp  emerges  from  the  shell,  and 
hangs  head  down,  still  attached  at  its  anal  segment  to  the 
cell  wall.  For  several  hours  I  keep  close  watch,  during 
which  time  it  pays  no  attention  to  the  paralyzed  spider.  It 
scorns  my  work  and  the  repast  I  have  prepared  and  hangs 
helplessly,  its  mouth  sucking  rythmically  at  the  air.  Now 
I  move  the  spider  so  that  one  of  the  stab  wounds  in  its  body 
comes  in  contact  with  the  larva's  mouth.  It  responds  fran- 
tically, like  a  creature  dying  of  thirst,  to  the  liquid  that  oozes 
from  the  wound.  It  fastens  itself  by  the  mouth  to  its  victim 
and  there  it  clings  like  a  suction  pad,  its  entire  body  rippling 
as  it  drains  the  spider's  life. 

Much  to  my  surprise  the  experiment  is  crowned  with 
success.  In  a  few  hours  a  change  is  noticeable  in  the  larva — 
it  has  grown  and  gained  in  strength.  At  length  it  pulls 
away  from  the  walls  of  the  cell  and  settles  among  the  spiders 
I  have  provided.  It  is  an  experiment  especially  prolific  in 
answering  abstract  questions  and  suggesting  others.  It 
proves  that  all  larva  are  not  entirely  dependent  on  one  cer- 
tain article  of  diet.  Doubtless  a  given  species  is  invariably 
supplied  by  the  parent  with  the  same  kind  of  food,  yet  we 
have  positive  proof  that  such  a  condition  is  not  imperative. 
The  larva  has  no  more  abhorrence  for  the  spider  than  for  its 
natural  diet  of  caterpillars.  If  the  mother  wasp  but  knew 


412         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

the  truth  she  might  store  her  nest  with  the  ever  abundant 
spider  in  years  of  caterpillar  scarcity. 

Further,  the  experiment  points  out  that  in  the  wasp's 
victim,  paralysis  may  be  brought  about  by  the  thrust  of  the 
dart  unaided  by  its  poison.  It  is  the  stabbing  and  injuring 
of  the  ganglions  that  produces  the  effect,  at  least  in  the  case 
of  the  spider. 

Is  the  poison  of  the  wasp  a  potion  for  prolonging  life 
in  the  stores,  rather  than  an  agent  for  producing  paralysis? 
Do  wasps  that  attach  their  eggs  to  the  cell  walls,  leave  the 
doors  open  until  the  young  wasps  hatch,  for  any  particular 
reason?  These  are  questions  that  the  experiment  suggests. 
But  let  us  go  back  to  the  insect's  life  history. 

At  birth  the  young  wasp  measures  two  and  one-half 
millimeters.  It  is  a  milky  white  grub  of  thirteen  segments 
counting  the  head,  which  is  a  round  bead-like  affair.  As  it 
feeds  and  increases  in  size  the  distinction  of  the  head  de- 
creases. At  first  the  head  is  nearly  the  same  diameter  as 
the  body  itself,  but  the  latter  soon  takes  on  flesh  and  grows 
many  times  its  original  size,  so  much  more  rapidly  than  the 
head  that  it  soon  greatly  surpasses  it. 

I  continued  to  feed  my  orphan  for  five  days,  which  is 
the  average  length  of  time  spent  gorging  by  the  Guiana 
grub.  During  this  time  it  consumed  several  small  spiders 
that  I  paralyzed  and  placed  before  it,  reaching  in  the  end 
a  length  of  seven  millimeters  and  turning  a  pale  yellow  color 
much  like  clouded  or  partly  sugared  honey. 

Now  the  grub  lies  motionless  for  three  days,  when  a 
pelkt  of  undigested  bits  of  spider  is  deposited  in  the  cell. 
No  cocoon  of  any  kind  is  spun;  instead  it  lies  upon  the  bare, 
hooped  floor  of  the  nursery,  apparently  quite  contented.  All 
wasps  rid  themselves  of  what  waste  has  accumulated  during 
larval  life  in  this  manner,  a  short  time  prior  to  pupation,  the 
majority  placing  it  in  the  lower  pole  of  the  cocoon,  where  it 
acts  as  a  solid  plug.  When  the  waste  matter  is  expelled  the 
grub  often  loses  its  original  color  which  is  due  only  to  the 


FOREST  SHELL-WASP  413 

sewage  showing  through  its  transparent  skin.  In  the  case  of 
the  shell- wasp,  it  changes  from  a  clouded  honey  color  to  white 
slightly  tinged  with  yellow.  It  also  becomes  more  opaque. 

Ten  days  after  excretion  the  insect  pupates.  Then 
comes  another  wait  of  three  weeks  before  the  final  wasp  is- 
sues from  its  cell. 

During  these  twenty-one  days,  the  pupa  receives  its  fin- 
ishing touches — at  first,  when  the  transformation  from  the 
larval  state  takes  place,  there  is  no  dark  pigment  in  the  body. 
It  is  yellowish  white  and  rather  translucent.  Color  appears 
first  in  the  eyes  which  turn  light  lavender,  then  brown  and 
finally  black.  Xext,  the  pigment  appears  in  the  remainder 
of  the  head.  Then,  as  though  coming  through  some  hidden 
tunnel  below  the  flesh,  it  appears  as  a  mere  dot  of  dark  fluid 
in  the  center  of  the  thorax.  Slowly  the  dot  expands,  throw- 
ing out  arms  of  color  which  later  combine  and  fill  the  entire 
thorax  with  pigment,  like  a  rocket  that  unfolds  its  display 
in  the  sky.  Xext  the  slender  petiole  of  the  abdomen  becomes 
clouded.  This  soon  gives  place  to  darker  color  while  its  re- 
cent cloudiness  appears  in  the  abdomen  itself.  At  length 
the  entire  insect  turns  black  save  for  the  three  small  orange- 
yellow  patches  on  its  abdomen. 

This  general  dullness  is  due  to  the  pupal  skin  in  which 
the  finished  wasp  is  now  resting.  We  see  it  through  this 
delicate  membranous  covering  which  is  immeasurably  thin 
and  fits  the  insect  as  closely  as  her  own  external  skeleton. 
Under  the  transparent  covering  the  insect  appears  dull,  but 
otherwise  quite  normal  except  for  her  wings.  Her  legs  and 
antennae  are  of  proper  length,  her  head  and  body  neatly 
proportioned,  yet  her  wings  are  but  a  third  the  natural  size. 
They  are  hollow  appendages  intricately  folded  and  held  in 
place  by  the  wing  bags  of  the  membranous  covering.  Later 
with  the  pupal  skin  of  which  they  are  a  part,  these  bags  are 
shed,  releasing  the  true  wings  which  unfold  to  their  full  ex- 
tent under  a  pressure  of  liquid  which  flows  into  them  from 


414         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

the  wasp's  body.  Later  the  liquid  is  withdrawn  and  they  dry 
as  thin,  brittle  appendages. 

When  the  pupal  membrane  is  cast  the  wasp  requires  at 
least  another  day  to  rest  and  gain  strength  for  her  emer- 
gence. She  does  not  issue  into  the  world  in  the  wet,  weak 
condition  of  the  butterfly,  to  rest  and  dry  in  the  sunshine 
before  flying  to  seek  her  mate.  Instead  she  makes  her  toilet 
within  the  cell  and  waits  for  full  strength  before  emerging. 
Then,  everything  ready,  with  knife-like  mandibles  she  cuts 
a  neat  round  hole  through  the  mossy  wall  and  casts  herself 
to  the  lot  of  fate. 

We  see  her  as  she  emerges,  all  glistening  with  the  youth 
of  a  new  generation.  A  scant  forty  days  have  passed  since 
the  mother  wasp  fashioned  the  emerald  nursery  upon  the 
swinging  air  root. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

*•    •  THE   ONE-BANDED   DAUBER 

Sceliphron  fistulare   (Dahlb.) 
Fig.  133;  9-12 

The  physiological  phases  of  the  dauber's  life  history  nat- 
urally adhere  to  a  set  of  invariable  rules — the  egg  hatches  in 
a  certain  length  of  time,  the  larva  feeds  until  the  spiders  in 
its  cell  are  consumed  and  in  the  course  of  certain  definite 
periods  the  insect  pupates  and  emerges.  Her  nest  is  of  clay, 
her  provisions  spiders,  but  otherwise,  in  the  remainder  of 
her  nesting  activities,  this  wasp  is  a  creature  that  follows  no 
rule.  Her  nursery  may  be  but  a  single  earthen  cell  or  it  may 
boast  a  group  of  twelve.  It  may  be  fastened  to  a  twig,  to 
the  side  of  a  house,  to  a  sheltering  stone  or  on  the  edge  of  a 
narrow  shutter  slat — one  nest  is  a  long  flat  object  humped 
at  one  end  with  additional  cells  and  decorated  with  strips  of 
variegated  clay,  another  is  top-shaped,  dull  in  color  with  a 
well  defined  point,  a  third  is  egg-shaped ;  still  another  is  but 
a  single  grey  cell,  half  circular  at  one  end  and  quite  round 
at  the  other.  They  vary  endlessly  according  to  the  energy 
and  taste  of  the  individual  builder,  therefore  I  cannot  de- 
scribe any  one  nest  as  the  usual  type — I  may  tell  only  of  the 
building  of  a  cell.  It  may  be  the  first  room  framed  in  an 
elaborate  plan,  or  the  completed  nest  of  the  dauber,  but  my 
remarks  will  apply  to  any  nest. 

Upon  a  brick  pillar  supporting  the  laboratory  the  wasp 
laid  the  corner  stone  of  her  nest.  Twelve  loads  of  brown 
mud,  tamped  out  into  flat  pies,  side  by  side,  sufficed  for  the 
foundation.  The  material  was  carried  in  little  round  pellets 
weighing  one-tenth  of  a  gram.  They  were  borne  in  the 
wasp's  mandibles  from  a  moist  spot  in  a  flat  clearing  nearby. 
Each  pellet  was  tamped  and  arranged  with  great  care,  dur- 


Photo  by  P.  <i.  II. 

FIG.  136.    ONE-BANDED  DAUBER 

Four  distinct  types  of  nests.     6.  The  Dauber  at  her  nest.     c.  Newly  emerged  Dauber. 
Upper  picture  about  one  third  natural  size.        Lower  pictures  slightly  enlarged. 


ONE-BANDED  DAUBER  417 

ing  which  time  the  wasp  buzzed  continually  and  held  her 
abdomen  at  the  end  of  its  long  petiole  high  in  the  air,  as  a 
balance  weight  to  her  lowered  head  on  the  other  end.  The 
fore  legs  were  used  as  much  as  the  mandibles,  thus  her  dumb- 
bell-like body  swung  pivoted  upon  the  central  pair  of  legs. 

When  the  foundations  were  laid  she  proceeded  with  the 
cell  itself,  bringing  thirty  loads  of  mud  per  hour.  In  a  little 
over  two  hours  the  cell  was  complete,  a  neatly  rounded  tube, 
thirty  millimeters  long  and  sixteen  millimeters  in  diameter, 
the  result  of  some  sixty-five  loads  of  mortar. 

In  fashioning  the  tube,  the  first  few  pellets  were  depos- 
ited side  by  side  and  raised  into  a  semi-circular  mound  or 
half  disk  stood  on  end.  Here  again  the  work  was  accom- 
plished with  her  mandibles  and  fore  legs.  The  clay  was 
pinched  up  between  the  tarsi  and  then  shaped  principally 
with  the  mandibles  which  acted  like  a  pair  of  flattened  tongs. 
When  the  disk  was  finished  the  successive  loads  of  mud  were 
pressed  against  its  inner  surface,  usually  at  one  side  and  then 
moulded  into  a  narrow  ridge  running  around  its  circumfer- 
ence. Thereafter  each  pellet  was  fashioned  into  a  ribbon  of 
plaster  placed  against  the  side  of  the  preceding  layer. 
When  the  job  was  finished  these  individual  layers  were  quite 
visible  so  that  the  separate  rings  of  which  the  nest  was  con- 
structed, could  easily  be  counted. 

In  coming  to  her  nest  the  wasp  often  experienced  great 
difficulty  in  locating  it.  She  would  approach  the  brick  pil- 
lar with  her  mortar  pellet,  circle  the  column  once  and  then 
alight,  as  a  general  rule,  some  distance  above  or  below  the 
nest.  A  thorough  inspection  of  the  spot  to  which  her  gen- 
eral sense  of  direction  brought  her,  would  follow.  This  in- 
spection never  extended  beyond  one  or  two  bricks  at  most. 
Finding  the  cell  missing,  she  would  take  wing,  circle  the  pil- 
lar once  more  and  alight  in  a  new  location.  Sometimes  this 
performance  was  repeated  over  and  over,  until  at  length  she 
would  come  by  chance  upon  the  brick  supporting  the  object 
of  her  search. 


418         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

Different  species  of  wasps  vary  greatly  in  degrees  of 
accuracy  in  rinding  their  nests.  Some  experience  no  diffi- 
culty whatever,  others  have  slight  trouble,  while  still  others 
spend  at  least  one-third  of  their  nesting  period  searching 
for  the  elusive  keyhole.  So  true  is  this  among  solitary  wasps 
that  they  might  be  divided  into  several  groups  in  the  order 
of  their  respective  accuracy.  One  group  would  contain  the 
wasps  which  build  nests  in  the  ends  of  hollow  reeds.  The 
home  doorway  may  be  in  the  midst  of  a  dozen  others,  yet 
the  owner  flies  directly  to  her  own  threshold  without  an  in- 
stant's hesitation.  The  long  black  reed-wasp  and  the  white- 
footed  wasp  would  be  shining  examples  of  this  enlightened 
group.  Again  we  have  such  wasps  as  the  red-legged  digger 
who  locates  her  tunnel  in  the  ground  only  after  a  series  of 
circular  flights  in  the  air  above  it,  much  as  a  carrier  pigeon 
hovers  when  released,  before  turning  homeward.  In  the 
third  group,  the  one-banded  dauber  might  head  a  list  of 
blunderers  who  find  their  cells  only  after  a  search,  sometimes 
of  great  length,  with  the  loss  of  much  valuable  time  and 
energy. 

I  do  not  believe  that  sight  is  an  important  factor  to  be 
considered  in  any  of  the  above  cases.  Insects  do  not  see 
such  small  objects  as  their  nests  clearly  from  a  distance.  It 
is,  to  some  extent,  a  sense  of  smell,  after  the  main  journey 
has  been  accomplished,  but  they  rely  chiefly  on  a  sense  of 
direction.  Some  have  it  more  highly  developed  than  others, 
just  as  the  Indian  finds  his  way  in  the  forest  unaided  by 
compass,  where  another  individual,  a  white  man,  would  fail 
or  perhaps  blunder  through  to  his  camp.  The  one-banded 
dauber  flies  accurately  enough  to  her  brick  pillar,  but  lacks 
that  balanced  sense  of  direction  that  lands  the  white- footed 
wasp  in  a  single  flight  at  her  doorway. 

In  the  wooden  shutters  of  the  Laboratory,  I  found  fur- 
ther evidence  of  the  dauber's  stupidity.  For  a  nesting  site, 
she  had  selected  in  this  case  the  narrow  edge  of  a  slat  situated 
midway  between  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  shutter.  Below 


ONE-BANDED  DAUBER  419 

her  site  were  a  dozen  other  slats  each  affording  a  building- 
plot  similar  in  every  way  to  the  one  she  had  selected.  Above 
her  were  as  many  more.  This  made  her  work  difficult,  as  it 
finally  proved,  too  difficult  for  her  limited  sense  of  direction. 
She  laid  the  foundation  of  her  nest  in  a  maze  of  sites,  each 
exactly  like  those  above  and  below  and  in  the  end  her  design 
perished.  Her  pellets  of  mud  were  deposited  upon  four  dif- 
ferent slats,  one  below  the  other  until  four  separate  cells, 
three  inches  apart  commenced  to  take  form.  Arriving  laden 
with  her  ball  of  mud  she  would  fly  to  the  general  location  of 
her  original  foundation,  but  to  distinguish  which  slat  among 
so  many  similar  ones  supported  her  original  masonry  was 
quite  beyond  her.  Thus  she  worked,  vainly  endeavoring  to 
finish  her  nursery  in  the  usual  space  of  time,  laboring  the 
while  unconsciously  on  four  widely  separated  cells!  Even- 
tually she  abandoned  the  job  in  despair  and  indeed  it  must 
have  been  discouraging.  To  return,  hour  after  hour,  labori- 
ously carrying  that  heavy  mortar  to  a  house  that  refused  to 
grow,  might  easily  discourage  a  stouter  heart  than  the 
dauber's. 

That  she  concentrated  her  efforts  entirely  upon  four 
slats  was  an  interesting  fact.  It  gives  us  some  idea  to  what 
degree  of  perfection  her  senses  of  smell  and  direction  are 
developed.  The  first  slat  bearing  evidences  of  her  workman- 
ship was  situated  twelve  inches  above  the  fourth  and  lowest 
one.  ]STow  as  the  wasp  always  returned,  with  her  pellet,  to 
one  of  these  four,  it  is  logical  to  suppose  that  her  sense  of 
direction  was  developed  accurately  enough  to  bring  her 
within  twelve  inches  of  the  actual  location  of  her  nest.  Ob- 
servation of  the  insect  whose  nest  I  found  upon  the  brick 
pillar  strengthened  the  evidence.  This  wasp  never  returned 
directly  to  her  nest  at  the  outset,  but  at  the  same  time  never 
alighted  with  her  burden  more  than  a  full  twelve  inches  from 
it.  From  such  a  position  she  would  walk  about  in  a  zigzag 
course,  until  at  length  the  brick  bearing  the  nest  was  reached. 
Once  this  "home  brick"  was  located,  the  insect  would  walk 


420         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

straight  to  her  nest.  The  dauber  returned  to  the  general 
locality  without  much  difficulty,  but  actually  to  reach  the 
cells  she  must  feel  about  with  curled  antennae,  and  depend 
upon  smell  rather  than  a  mere  sense  of  direction. 

To  build  a  cell  including  its  foundation  requires  between 
seventy  and  eighty  loads  of  mortar.  The  freshly  made  nurs- 
ery weighs  about  seven  and  two-thirds  grams,  but  by  the 
time  it  is  ready  to  receive  provisions,  evaporation  has  reduced 
it  to  three.  From  these  figures  I  conclude  that  to  build  a 
nest  containing  ten  cells  requires  some  seven  hundred  pellets 
of  mud.  In  accomplishing  her  task  the  tireless,  energetic 
mason  carries  1,000  times  her  own  weight  in  mortar  and  fash- 
ions it  grain  by  grain  into  the  abode  for  her  progeny. 

In  storing  her  cells,  the  dauber  shows  a  varied  taste. 
I  have  before  me,  two  open  cells.  One  contains  two  large 
fat  spiders  that  easily  fill  the  store-room,  the  other  is  stored 
with  a  variety  of  victims,  nine  in  all,  including  many  grades 
of  size  and  color.  In  these  two  cells  I  have  at  least  three 
genera  and  five  different  species  of  paralyzed  spiders. 

Upon  the  side  of  the  abdomen  of  the  largest  one  in  each 
cell,  the  wasp  deposits  a  pale  yellowish  white  egg,  then  she 
seals  the  nursery  entrance  with  a  few  pellets  of  mortar  and 
abandons  the  nest  for  good. 

In  seventy-two  hours  the  egg  hatches,  or  I  should  say, 
comes  to  life.  Here  is  a  strange  process.  Watching  the 
erstwhile  egg  through  the  lense,  a  spasm  suddenly  takes 
place  within  its  film-like  shell,  which  is  nearly  transparent 
and  allows  a  fairly  clear  view  of  what  takes  place  within. 
This  spasm  is  a  sort  of  pumping  wave,  similar  to  the  move- 
ment in  a  big  fire  hose  under  pressure  from  the  engine.  It 
starts  at  the  anterior  end  of  the  egg  and  transverses  its  en- 
tire length,  fading  out  as  it  reaches  the  opposite  end  from 
which  it  started.  Thus  does  the  new-born  take  its  first 
mouthful  of  liquid  food  from  the  spider.  There  is  no  actual 
hatching  and  crawling  forth  from  the  egg,  no  empty  shell 
behind  the  larva.  Instead,  its  mouth  appears  first  to  eat  a 


ONE-BANDED  DAUBER  421 

tiny  opening  through  the  film  that  encloses  it,  after  which 
the  grub  finds  its  mouth  flat  upon  the  spider's  abdomen. 

As  the  pumping  spasms  continue,  each  one  representing 
a  swallowed  mouthful  of  spider  substance,  the  nursling  in- 
creases very  gradually  in  bulk.  A  few  hours  after  taking 
its  first  draught  of  food  stuff,  the  egg-film  apparently  splits 
along  the  center  of  the  larva's  back,  one  end  of  the  breach 
traveling  in  either  direction,  exposing  the  actual  skin  of  the 
young  wasp.  The  breach  spreads  like  a  drop  of  oil  upon 
water,  only  much  more  slowly,  but  twenty-four  hours  after 
the  first  spasm  not  a  vestige  of  film  remains.  It  appears  to 
have  been  absorbed  into  the  larva's  body.  Under  the  lens 
it  vanishes  slowly  before  my  eyes,  yet  I  cannot  see  where 
it  goes,  and  when  the  process  is  over  I  can  find  no  trace  of 
it  either  on  the  larva  or  its  spider  host.  The  grub  is  a  living 
dialyzer  through  whose  delicate  skin  the  egg-film  appears 
to  osmose.  In  other  words,  I  believe  that  the  film  is  ab- 
sorbed into  the  insect's  body  in  minute  particles  in  much  the 
same  manner  that  food  passes  through  the  walls  of  the  oeso- 
phagus to  reach  the  distributing  corpuscles. 

It  is  possible  that  the  larva  eats  the  egg-film,  but  if  so 
it  is  drawn  into  the  mouth  so  gradually  and  with  such  skill 
that  it  is  impossible  to  detect  the  operation.  Therefore,  I 
suggest  that  the  process  may  be  akin  to  osmosis '.  The  action 
is  so  gradual,  yet  so  smooth  and  uninterrupted  that  I  can 
think  of  no  other  way  to  describe  it. 

At  first  the  young  wasp  feeds  only  on  liquid  food.  Dur- 
ing the  first  few  hours  of  its  life  its  mandibles  are  of  a  very 
rudimentary  character,  in  fact  scarcely  distinguishable  until 
the  grub  is  a  day  or  more  old — and  are  developed  gradually 
to  be  in  readiness  later  when  substantial  parts  of  the  spider 
must  be  eaten.  The  fact  that  at  birth  the  grub  possesses  no 
adequate  appendages  for  chewing  suggests  an  interesting 
question — How  does  the  tender  creature  make  the  first  inci- 
sion through  the  mature  wall  of  the  spider's  abdomen?  Per- 
haps the  parent  wasp  pricks  it  and  uses  the  minute  drop  of 


422         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

fluid  that  oozes  from  the  wound  as  mucilage  with  which  to 
secure  the  position  of  her  egg.  The  grub  would  come  to 
life  then  with  its  infant  mouth  already  upon  the  opening  that 
its  mother  had  drilled.  Such,  I  believe  is  the  case,  but  let 
it  not  stand  as  fact.  Further  observation  will  first  be 
necessary. 

The  grub  feeds  for  six  days — during  this  time  it  goes 
about  its  meal  in  a  thorough  manner  so  that  in  the  end  not  a 
hair  of  the  stored  spider  remains.  Further  the  larva  has 
changed  greatly  in  size.  At  birth  it  measures  four  millime- 
ters, now  it  is  seventeen  millimeters  long  and  ready  to  spin 
its  cocoon. 

Spinning  is  a  laborious  process  requiring  three  whole 
days.  A  slight  network  of  silk  is  first  thrown  about  the  cell, 
within  which  an  inner  cocoon  of  far  more  substantial  char- 
acter is  then  constructed.  It  is  somewhat  longer  than  the 
grub,  torpedo  shaped  and  reddish  brown  in  color,  which  is 
due  to  the  varnish,  so  commonly  employed  by  the  larvae  of 
Hymenoptera,  showing  through  from  the  inside. 

The  cocoon  is  in  no  way  remarkable,  in  fact  it  is  quite 
simple.  I  have  seen  other  larvae  build  more  elaborate  ones 
in  a  day,  yet  the  dauber  requires  seventy  odd  hours  for  so 
simple  an  operation.  Its  nature  is  sluggish  from  the  outset, 
and  throughout  its  immature  life  it  is  slow  about  its  affairs. 
The  egg  requires  three  days  to  hatch,  the  grub  feeds  six  days, 
therefore  it  logically  follows  that  spinning  should  be  a  leis- 
urely process.  The  grub  therefore  takes  its  time  and  is  none 
the  worse  for  it. 

Seven  days  after  spinning,  pupation  takes  place.  The 
creature  now  lies  motionless  in  the  usual  quiet  state  that  ac- 
companies this  condition.  Colorless  and  stately,  lying  upon 
its  back  with  folded  arms  in  its  tomb  of  masonry,  the  pupal 
corpse  awaits  a  reincarnation  that  in  twenty  days  brings 
forth  a  perfect  insect. 

Stupid  affairs  of  the  wasp  world  are  generously  heaped 
upon  the  dauber.  Before  me  lies  an  oddly-shaped  nest  of 


ONE-BANDED  DAUBER  423 

her  making  which  I  have  opened  for  inspection.  It  contains 
twelve  cells  and  as  many  cocoons,  ten  of  which  have  been 
burst  open  by  the  young  wasps  who  alas,  lie  dead  and  shriv- 
eled in  their  cells.  Their  heads  face  the  mortar-plugged 
doors  of  the  prison  which  bear  marks  of  frantic  efforts  to 
escape,  yet  each  has  died  of  starvation,  unable  to  reach  the 
outer  world. 

Herein  lies  the  reward  of  stupidity.  The  dauber,  whose 
life  seems  made  up  of  errors,  chose  for  her  nest  the  first  mor- 
tar that  she  chanced  to  find.  It  was  not  the  soft  grey  mud 
from  a  puddle  on  the  sandy  orange  surface  of  the  clearing, 
but  a  pasty  yellow  clay.  It  kneaded  admirably  when  soft 
and  fresh  but  in  hardening  turned  to  rock.  The  offspring 
grew  normally  within,  spun  their  cocoons  and  passed  suc- 
cessfully to  finished  insects,  but  were  unable  to  emerge. 
They  hammered  and  gnawed  and  scraped  at  the  mortar; 
the  nest  bore  evidence  of  the  effort  put  forth,  but  all  in  vain. 
The  mortar  resisted  and  the  young  wasps  died.  Thus  on  the 
very  eve  of  their  emergence  the  dauber's  offspring  were  ob- 
literated by  her  stupidity.  I  wonder,  even  if  there  were  a 
tiny  glimmer  of  intelligence  in  her  little  dome,  whether  she 
would  see  the  error  of  her  wavs  ? 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE  BLUE  HUNTRESS 

Chlorion  neotropicus  Kohl 
Fig.  133;  13-16 

Close  to  the  out-house,  whose  rough  frame  supports  the 
nursery  of  the  blue  huntress,  lies  a  heap  of  rich  red-orange 
clay,  thrown  up  from  a  pit  on  the  trail  to  the  forest.  It 
attracts  a  dozen  busy  mason-wasps  who  arrive  from  far  and 
near  to  gather  up  the  pliable,  ready-made  mortar  and  bear 
it  away  to  their  nests.  We  are  concerned  only  with  a  single 
member  of  the  laboring  crowd.  She  is  at  once  distinct  in 
size.  Her  rich  metallic  color  attracts  our  attention  and  holds 
it  over  eleven  less  comely  ones. 

The  cement  which  she  is  gathering  is  pliable  like  putty, 
but  rilled  with  tiny  bits  of  stones  that  make  its  contents  simi- 
lar to  that  of  very  fine  concrete.  These  tiny  stones  which  are 
large  rocks  to  the  insect,  lend  themselves  admirably  to  the 
needs  of  her  nest.  They  lend  a  rough,  rugged  appearance 
to  the  three-celled  nursery,  but  form  an  impregnable  barrier 
against  a  host  of  enemies. 

The  building  material  is  laid  on  in  irregular  heaps. 
They  dry  very  rapidly  as  the  work  progresses,  giving  the 
nest  the  appearance  of  a  bit  of  fairy  hill  country  covered 
with  a  thousand  disorderly  loads,  spilled  helter-skelter  from 
as  many  tiny  dump  carts.  The  wasp  cares  little  for  outside 
appearances  which  are  of  no  account.  She  is  concerned 
chiefly  with  finishing  the  interior,  which  is  a  far  more  serious 
matter. 

Within,  the  cells  are  quite  as  smooth  as  they  are  rough 
without,  a  condition  necessary  in  view  of  the  delicate  con- 
tents they  are  to  shelter.  The  slightest  projecting  bit  of 
stone  work,  even  a  sharp  grain  of  sand  overlooked,  might 


BLUE  HUNTRESS  425 

injure  the  tender  bodies  of  the  insect's  offspring.  Thus  we 
see  her  tamping  a  tiny  pebble  or  a  bit  of  hardened  mortar, 
until  it  sinks  into  the  smooth  wall  of  the  chamber.  Over  and 
over,  she  inspects  her  work,  scraping,  brushing,  tamping, 
until  the  cradle  bears  no  resemblance,  except  that  of  color, 
to  the  coarse,  sticky  substance  from  the  pit.  Her  nest  re- 
minds me  of  a  callow  suburban  home,  terra  cotta  and  jagged 
stones.  Her  taste  is  not  cultured,  but  we  may  excuse  her 
quite  readily.  She  specifies  these  droll  materials  for  a  vital 
reason. 

The  huntress  is  a  skilled  worker — she  is  a  prodigy,  re- 
quiring but  a  single  tool  to  fashion  the  mortar  nursery.  The 
tip  of  her  abdomen  is  a  veritable  tool  chest  all  in  one,  a  uni- 
versal appliance  with  which  the  work  is  done.  True,  she 
gathers  and  carries  material  with  her  mandibles,  but  the 
house  itself  is  wrought  by  the  last  segment  of  her  body.  It 
is  a  modeler's  gouge,  with  which  she  measures  the  cells,  de- 
cides their  contour,  smooths  their  walls  and  fashions  the 
entrances.  Throughout  the  building  one  finds  tiny,  triangu- 
lar indentures,  where  the  tool  has  left  its  impression. 

The  finished  nest  consists  of  three  tubes,  placed  one  upon 
another.  They  are  open  at  one  end,  where  the  entrances 
are  slightly  funnel-shaped  like  the  mouth  of  a  flower  vase. 
The  tubes  or  cells,  measure  thirty-four  millimeters  in  diam- 
eter. There  is  variation  to  a  slight  degree,  but  the  measure- 
ments are  the  average  of  several  nests.  The  insect  works 
energetically,  completing  the  work  in  five  days.  One  cell  is 
constructed,  provisioned  and  an  egg  deposited,  before  a  sec- 
ond one  is  commenced. 

As  soon  as  a  cell  is  finished,  the  wasp  sets  out  in  search 
of  provisions  with  which  to  assure  the  successful  life  of  her 
offspring.  She  travels  the  open  sunny  trails  or  the  dark 
floor  of  the  forest.  One  is  as  good  as  another,  provided  there 
are  dead  leaves  or  fallen  branches  that  shelter  her  prey  from 
less  agile  creatures  than  herself.  We  see  her  alight  upon 
the  ground  and  search  diligently  under  every  leaf  and  branch 


426         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIG.  137.     BLUE  HUNTRESS  AT  HER  NEST 
Natural  size. 


that  chances  in  her  path.  Her  antennae  are  curled  over,  so 
that  the  end  of  each  forms  a  perfect  loop.  She  thrusts  them 
ahead  of  her  and  depends  upon  their  sensitive  pores  to  locate 
the  big  tawny  spiders  that  constitute  her  prey.  She  is  always 
nervously  alert,  her  body  tense  and  ready  at  an  instant's 
notice  to  spring  back  out  of  danger.  As  she  works,  her  big, 
steel  blue  wings  quiver  continually  as  though  with  excite- 
ment over  the  possibilities  of  each  new  leaf  and  shelter  that 
she  explores. 


BLUE  HUNTRESS  427 

Her  course  is  irregular.  Here  she  searches  for  perhaps 
a  minute  followed  by  a  longer  investigation  some  fifty  feet 
away.  Now  the  hunt  heads  her  back  to  the  starting  point 
and  later  to  the  intervening  ground,  which  is  searched  min- 
utely. At  other  times  she  walks  in  a  zigzag  fashion  for  a 
great  distance,  even  though  unsuccessful  in  the  end.  It  is  a 
surprise  to  me  that  she  finds  her  elusive  and  protectively  col- 
ored prey  at  all.  You  wonder  why?  Then  search  among 
the  leaves  for  the  spider  that  serves  to  provision  her  nest. 
You  will  scarcely  find  one,  even  in  a  whole  day's  hunt,  yet 
the  huntress  is  a  dominant  insect,  seldom  defeated  in  her 
quest. 

At  length  the  spider  is  found  lurking  beneath  a  brittle 
leaf.  Her  antennae  telegraph  the  information  to  a  tiny 
brain  and  instantly  the  wasp  springs  back  as  though  sur- 
prised. A  second  later  she  recovers  and  thrusts  herself  into 
the  spider's  den.  Her  body  bends  under  her  so  that  the 
deadly  sting  protrudes  almost  beyond  the  head.  At  the  first 
movement  from  the  spider,  she  springs  back  again  with  quiv- 
ering wings.  The  manoeuvre  is  repeated  over  and  over  until 
her  prey  is  at  length,  forced  unconsciously  into  a  convenient 
position.  Then  like  a  flash  she  is  upon  the  unfortunate.  Her 
sting  plunges  deeply  into  the  creature's  nerve  center  and  in- 
stant paralysis  results. 

The  spider  is  not  killed  outright.  In  that  case  it  would 
decompose  and  become  dangerous  fare  for  the  young  wasps. 
Instead,  it  is  simply  paralyzed.  It  will  never  move  again  to 
protest,  or  protect  itself.  Perhaps  it  may  react  automatic- 
ally with  a  slight  quivering  of  the  legs  when  touched,  but 
henceforth  it  will  yield  to  whatever  fate  has  in  store  for  it. 
The  victim  will  awake  from  unconsciousness  only  as  a  part 
of  another  living  creature,  when  spider  substance  has  been 
eaten  to  build  the  body  of  a  wasp. 

The  spider  is  a  larger  creature  than  the  wasp  herself, 
yet  she  manages  to  fly  laboriously  to  her  nest,  carrying  her 
victim  by  one  of  its  palpi,  clasped  between  her  mandibles. 


if 


i 


BLUE  HUNTRESS  429 

To  gain  access  to  her  nest,  she  must  enter  the  out-house 
through  a  slatted  window,  the  lowest  part  of  which  is  three 
feet  from  the  ground.  Once  she  missed  the  opening  and 
tumbled  with  the  spider  headlong  to  earth.  She  was  undis- 
mayed by  the  fall,  never  once  relinquishing  her  hold,  but  I 
was  struck  by  the  difficulty  she  experienced  in  starting  once 
more  for  the  opening.  It  required  the  combined  strength 
of  legs  and  wings  to  drag  the  creature  up  the  perpendicular 
wall  of  the  building  to  the  slats  of  the  window. 

Once  within,  the  spider  is  dragged  to  the  waiting  cell, 
where  it  is  left  with  head  facing  the  entrance.  A  yellowish 
white  egg,  projectile  shape,  is  now  deposited  upon  the  side 
of  its  abdomen.  This  accomplished  the  wasp  returns  to  the 
outside  of  the  nest.  Now  comes  a  thorough  personal  clean- 
up before  continuing.  The  fore  legs  are  drawn  through  her 
mouth  and  rubbed  briskly  over  her  head  and  antennae.  The 
hind  legs  are  used  in  cleaning  the  wings  and  abdomen  and 
during  the  process  the  wasp  stands  almost  upon  her  head. 
In.  a  few  minutes  she  is  clean  and  bright.  Doubtless  the 
scrubbing  refreshes  her,  as  a  bath  puts  new  vigor  into  a  tired 
man  who  has  worked  faithfully  for  his  family  and  returned 
home  with  the  sweat  of  labor  still  upon  him. 

But  her  work  is  not  over  with  the  storing  of  the  spider. 
She  has  yet  to  close  the  cell  with  a  seal  that  cannot  be  easily 
broken.  The  job  must  be  done  with  care,  and  quickly.  A 
flaw,  ever  so  tiny  in  the  masonry  may  jeopardize  the  helpless 
inmates.  Wasplets  are  tender  morsels,  fine  fare  for  many 
a  parasite.  The  huntress  must  guard  the  results  of  her  la- 
bor. I  watched  this  interesting  process  which  required  an 
hour  from  the  time  the  spider  was  dragged  into  the  cell:  It 
was  only  a  tiny  doorway,  ten  millimeters  in  diameter,  yet 
during  those  sixty  minutes,  thirty  loads  of  clay  were  brought 
to  the  nest  and  packed  with  minute  care  into  the  entrance. 
The  tiny  trowel  and  scraper,  the  tamper  and  smoother,  all 
combined  in  the  tip  of  her  energetic  little  body  must  have 
been  worn  indeed  when  the  task  was  finished.  But  there  was 


430         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

no  sign  of  fatigue.  In  fact,  I  believe  she  rejoiced  at  the 
close  of  a  day,  well  spent  in  the  interests  of  her  race,  without 
a  thought  for  her  own  spent  body,  for  such  is  the  great  spirit, 
altruistic  even  though  unconscious,  that  rules  the  insect 
world. 

The  last  cell  provisioned  and  sealed,  the  wasp  abandons 
her  nest.  She  deserves  a  rest  and  a  feast  of  nectar.  Hence- 
forth, nature  will  take  charge  of  her  offspring  that  she  may 
spend  her  declining  days  unburdened. 

Within  the  cell,  the  egg  hatches  in  forty-eight  hours. 
In  place  of  the  tiny  albumen-filled  projectile,  we  have  a  soft 
white  grub.  It  is  footless  and  quite  unfitted  for  anything 
but  the  consumption  of  food.  It  possesses  no  sting  like  the 
parent  huntress,  and  could  not  compete  in  battle  with  the 
most  primitive  insect,  yet  it  feeds,  immune  from  danger, 
upon  the  spider  that  lies  limply  within  the  cell.  Like  a 
foundling,  the  wasp  in  its  infant  state,  is  reared  by  a  foster 
parent.  Like  the  child,  it  lives  only  upon  liquids,  drawing 
them  from  the  huge  bosom  of  its  spider  wet  nurse.  As  the 
draining  goes  on,  the  spider's  body  shrivels  accordingly.  In 
forty-eight  hours  the  pap  is  exhausted,  but  now  the  grub  is 
strong  enough  to  partake  of  solid  food.  Its  mandibles  are 
capable  of  masticating  what  remains  of  the  feast.  In  short, 
it  sips  the  cream  first  and  eats  the  porridge  afterwards. 

After  five  days  of  continuous  gorging,  the  larva  treats 
itself  to  a  short  rest  before  spinning  its  cocoon.  During  the 
five  days,  the  spider  has  vanished  so  completely  from  the  cell 
that  only  a  microscope  reveals  a  few  uneaten  hairs.  These 
adhere  to  the  larva's  tacky  skin,  and  thus  escape  the  stom- 
ach ward  journey.  I  have  never  seen  such  a  hog!  Long  af- 
ter the  feast  is  over,  when  the  dishes  have  been  licked  clean, 
so  to  speak,  the  glutted  one  continues  to  Fletcherize  upon 
the  air. 

The  act  reveals  how  hard  and  fast  are  the  instinctive 
rules  governing  the  insect's  behavior.  The  larva  hatches 
upon  the  spider's  body.  As  soon  as  its  mandibles  become 


BLUE  HUNTRESS  431 

strong  enough,  they  commence  to  tear  and  chew  automatic- 
ally. A  bit  more  or  a  bit  less  provender  in  the  cell  is  of  no 
consequence  whatever.  Once  started,  the  jaws  continue  to 
work  for  a  certain  set  length  of  time  that  allows  for  varia- 
tion in  the  bulk  of  the  stores.  Thus,  if  the  spider  be  a  bit 
large,  it  will  be  consumed  readily  enough.  If  a  bit  small 
the  larva  will  simply  continue,  as  I  have  said,  to  Fletcherize 
upon  the  air  until  the  time  limit  set  upon  the  active  period 
of  its  mandibles  is  up.  The  insect  is  an  automaton,  a  slave 
to  a  power  that  is  not  intelligence. 

As  an  experiment  I  introduce  two  spiders  into  a  cell 
where  one  is  the  normal  provender.  The  larva  consumes 
nearly  all  of  the  feast,  grows  to  an  abnormal  size,  but  even- 
tually dies.  This  would  appear  to  contradict  the  existence 
of  an  invariable  set  of  rules  governing  the  insect's  life,  but 
such  is  not  the  case.  I  have  interfered  in  the  normal  course 
of  events  and  artificially  changed  those  rules  at  the  outset 
by  doubling  the  amount  of  provisions  in  the  cell.  The  wasp's 
life  is  like  a  chemical  compound,  the  ingredients  of  which 
correspond  to  these  rules  and  depend  upon  one  another  for 
the  ultimate  result.  Thus  if  we  alter  the  quantity  of  one 
ingredient  the  desired  result  is  not  obtained. 

The  experiment  has  in  no  way  disproved  that  the  crea- 
ture's life  progresses  by  hard  and  fast  rules.  On  the  other 
hand  it  confirms  the  statement,  and  further,  points  out  that 
each  rule  depends  upon  the  invariability  of  another  for  the 
ultimate  success  of  the  wasp.  It  also  tells  us  that  feeding 
is  governed  by  the  amount  of  provisions  in  the  cell.  Each 
mouthful  stimulates  a  certain  number  of  strokes  from  the 
mandibles.  Thus,  when  the  normal  provender  is  consumed 
by  the  larva,  it  still  continues  to  chew  until  the  stimulus  is 
gone.  In  the  cell  containing  two  spiders,  the  poor  wasplet 
found  no  end  of  good  things.  It  ate  one  spider.  Its  man- 
dibles continued  toward  the  limit  of  their  working  hours  and 
came  bump  into  the  second  spider.  The  stimulus  was  re- 
newed, and  its  jaws  commenced  to  work  again  eventually 


432         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 


J'iiotn  hi/  /'.  (!.  U. 

FIG.  139.    CELL  OF  BLUE  HUNTRESS,  OPENED  TO  SHOW  COCOON 
Enlarged  two  and  one  half  times. 

dragging  the  unfortunate  larva  into  death  at  the  hands  of 
indigestion. 

Thus  we  see  the  reason  for  hard  and  fast  rules  among 
insects.  They  are  entirely  dependent  upon  them  for  their 
existence.  Even  so  slight  a  variation  as  my  experiment  pro- 
vided, proves  this  to  my  satisfaction.  I  varied  the  rules  in 
one  small  particular  with  the  result  that  the  larva  was  led 
unconsciously  to  its  own  destruction. 

To  go  back :  the  larva  upon  finishing  its  spider,  rests  for 
a  short  period  before  commencing  its  cocoon.  This  rest  may 
be  necessary  because  there  is  nothing  else  to  be  done  until 
the  spinning  fluid  of  which  the  cocoon  is  to  be  made,  com- 
mences to  flow.  Once  started,  a  network  of  strands  is  thrown 
across  the  cell.  They  pass  for  the  most  part  under  the  spin- 
ner so  that  the  grub  rests  upon  a  net,  stretched  midway  be- 


BLUE  HUNTRESS  433 

tween  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  chamber.  Later,  upon  this 
preliminary  support,  a  neat  tubular  cocoon  is  spun.  It  is 
rounded  at  both  ends,  grayish  yellow  in  color,  glossy  and 
rather  transparent.  It  measures  eight  by  seventeen  milli- 
meters, and  only  partly  fills  the  roomy  cell.  As  a  final  touch 
the  interior  is  lightly  coated  with  a  pale,  smooth  varnish. 
The  cocoon  is  finished  in  two  days,  after  which  the  larva  ex- 
cretes a  mass  of  waste  matter  in  one  end.  This  accomplished, 
it  lies  quietly  awaiting  pupation,  which  follows  in  eight  days. 

The  pupa  is  yellowish  white  and  beautifully  folded  so 
that  its  remarkably  long  posterior  legs  do  not  extend  beyond 
the  tip  of  its  abdomen.  Its  head  is  armed  with  four  spikes ; 
upon  either  side  of  four  of  the  six  abdominal  segments  there 
is  a  "jack,"  or  protruding  T-shaped  support,  and  protruding 
from  opposite  sides  of  the  lateral  segment  is  a  pair  of  club- 
shaped  appendages.  (Fig.  140.) 

At  first  I  took  these  strange  objects  to  be  the  remains 
of  ancestral  legs.  I  thought  them  inherited  rather  than  ac- 
quired characters,  but  continued  observation  of  the  pupa 
within  its  cocoon  proved  the  contrary.  They  have  been  ac- 
quired in  order  that  the  insect's  heavy  abdomen  may  be 
kept  level  or  centered  within  the  cocoon,  no  matter  how  it 
is  shaken  about  or  turns  of  its  own  accord.  This  is  very  im- 
portant to  the  insect.  It  is  not  that  the  pupa  would  be  in- 
jured by  contact  with  the  cocoon  wall,  but  rather  that  the 
weight  of  its  own  abdomen  which  is  joined  to  the  remainder 
of  its  body  by  a  very  narrow  waist,  would  have  to  be  borne 
by  the  creature's  tender  legs.  In  such  a  case  they  would 
become  partly  crushed  and,  owing  to  their  great  delicacy  at 
this  period,  would  not  develop  properly.  When  the  legs 
become  strong  and  have  received  their  steel-blue  pigment, 
all  the  supporting  appendages  shrivel  and  are  completely 
lost.  This  takes  place  three  days  before  the  huntress  emerges 
from  her  cocoon.  The  supports  are  inflated  with  a  watery 
fluid  which  disappears  as  soon  as  a  breach  occurs  in  the  pupal 
skin.  One  may  be  cut  off  without  seriously  injuring  the 


I'ltlltl,  1,11 1'.  <••  II. 

FIG.  140.     PUPA  OF  BLUE  HUNTRESS  SHOWING  FOLDED  LEGS  AND  ABDOMINAL 

BUTTRESSES  WHICH  PREVENT  INJURY  AGAINST  THE  SIDES  OF  THE  COCOON. 

Five  and  one  half  times  enlarged. 


BLUE  HUNTRESS  435 

wasp,  but  the  removal  of  all,  causes  deformed  legs  owing  to 
the  abdomen  sagging  upon  them. 

Emergence  from  the  cell  as  a  perfect  insect  takes  place 
twenty-one  days  after  pupation.  If  the  parent  wasp  lived 
she  might  witness  the  home  building  of  her  children  thirty- 
eight  days  after  she  deposited  them  as  eggs  in  cells  of  her 
own  workmanship. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

PARALYZED  PROVENDER 

In  the  black  chambers  of  a  solitary  wasp's  nest  lie  six 
growing  youngsters.  They  are  greyish,  maggot-like  crea- 
tures, each  consisting  of  twelve  rings  or  segments  surmount- 
ed by  a  more  or  less  bony  or  chitinous  head  that  in  turn  sup- 
ports a  pair  of  sharp  incurved  mandibles.  Their  bodies  are 
plump  and  pudgy ;  they  possess  no  adequate  appendages  for 
locomotion  and  in  the  light  their  skins  glisten,  as  if  moistened 
with  liquid. 

Each  will  eventually  become  a  wasp,  an  active  domin- 
ant creature  with  a  delicate  taste  for  nectar.  But  that  is  far 
off  in  the  insect  future,  perhaps  some  forty  days  hence. 
They  are  concerned  now  only  with  the  meals  that  are  set 
before  them,  spiders  that  the  parent  wasp  has  selected  as 
dainty  provender. 

In  each  cell  of  the  nest  the  mother  insect  deposits  her 
bowed  egg  among  the  mass  of  spiders  that  are  paralyzed  by 
her  sting.  She  hunts  them  abroad  in  the  forest  or  among  the 
fallen  leaves  in  the  sunny  trails,  discovers  their  hiding  place 
and  swoops  hawk-like  upon  the  unfortunates.  There  is  a 
struggle  perhaps,  a  short  one,  the  wasp's  sting  soon  finds 
its  mark,  plunges  home,  and  in  an  instant  the  spider  lies 
limply  upon  its  threshold.  The  victim  is  not  dead,  instead 
it  is  only  plunged  into  a  state  of  paralysis  that  instantly 
binds  the  muscles  fast.  It  cannot  move  again  in  self  defence, 
cannot  command  the  power  of  its  legs.  It  is  still  a  living 
thing  unconscious  of  life.  Thus,  slightly  quivering  from  the 
shock  and  poison,  it  is  borne  to  the  victor's  nest,  deposited 
roughly  in  a  cell  with  several  other  equally  unfortunate 
ones,  sealed  forever  from  the  light  of  day  and  abandoned 
as  helpless  living  flesh  for  the  young  wasp  to  gorge  upon. 


PARALYZED   PROVENDER  437 

In  order  to  understand  what  has  just  taken  place,  let 
us  examine  the  victim's  anatomy  and  structure.  In  outward 
form  spiders  are  divided  into  two  distinct  parts — the  cephal- 
othorax  and  the  abdomen.  We  are  concerned  chiefly  with 
the  former,  which  is  the  first  division  of  the  creature,  the 
head  and  thorax,  as  it  were,  combined  in  one.  The  central 
nervous  system  of  the  spider  is,  for  the  most  part,  concen- 
trated in  a  mass  of  ganglions,  clustered  about  the  oesophagus. 
The  oesophagus  is  a  tube  through  which  food  passes  from  the 
mouth  to  the  stomach.  It  lies  in  the  central  portion  of  the 
cephalothorax.  That  part  of  the  central  system  lying  above 
is  the  brain,  from  which  the  optic  nerves  and  those  of  the 
biting  and  poisoning  appendages  arise.  Lying  below  the 
oesophagus  is  the  ganglion  from  which  the  nerves  of  the  legs 
and  palpi  emerge. 

Now,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  wasp  knows  the  above 
paragraph  by  heart.  She  was  an  anatomist  long  before  man. 
She  understood  spiders  long  before  man  understood  himself. 
Her  teacher  was  instinct,  an  immortal  master.  Thus  in  sting- 
ing her  spider  she  is  like  the  master  surgeon.  With  a  single 
tiny  wound  above,  with  a  single  lance  below,  she  accomplish- 
es the  desired  end.  Into  the  spider's  nervous  center  instinct 
guides  the  wasp's  poisoned  dart.  With  precise  strokes  she 
reaches  the  ganglions  of  her  victim  and  spills  her  venom. 
Henceforth  no  external  outrage,  however  great,  may  be 
transmitted  to  the  brain ;  no  volition  in  return  will  command 
the  forces  of  protest  and  defence.  Like  a  party  on  a  broken 
wire,  the  spider  lies  helpless  with  the  central  office  paralyzed ! 

In  preparing  provender  for  the  cells,  the  methods  em- 
ployed by  the  majority  of  solitary  wasps  are  more  or  less  the 
same.  Yet  the  sting-poisons  of  different  species  produce 
two  widely  different  effects  on  the  victims.  Both  are  doubt- 
less forms  of  the  same  affliction;  one,  the  commonest  type, 
acts  instantly  as  I  have  just  described.  It  causes  complete 
paralysis  throughout  the  muscles  that  control  walking,  bit- 
ing, excretion  and  all  exterior  movements  of  the  cephalo- 


438         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

thorax,  abdomen  and  its  appendages.  The  respiratory  sys- 
tem appears  to  be  all  that  is  left  uninjured. 

The  second  form,  which  is  much  more  rarely  met  with, 
is  a  gradual  type,  commencing  with  the  deadening  effect  of 
heavy  sleep,  finally  giving  place  to  paralysis,  some  time  after 
the  victim  is  stricken  by  the  sting.  Let  us  observe  the  two 
cases  in  question.  As  an  example  of  the  first  we  have  a 
medium-sized  spider  that  has  been  stung  by  the  white-footed 
wasp.  Of  course  different  kinds  of  spiders  are  selected  by 
different  species  of  wasps.  But  this  is  of  no  consequence, 
and  will  not  affect  the  essential  facts  of  our  observation.  If 
the  creature  is  a  spider  it  matters  not  in  the  least  whether  it 
be  Gasteracantha,  Filistata,  Micrathena  or  any  other  jaw- 
splitting  species.  Spiders  are  the  common  prey  of  many 
solitary  wasps,  a  fact  which  is  sufficient. 

The  victim  lies  limply  upon  its  belly  in  the  cell.  En- 
closed in  a  tomb  of  solid  masonry,  it  is  abandoned  by  the 
mother  wasp  to  its  fate.  Upon  its  flank  rests  the  glistening 
egg  of  the  slayer.  Thus  the  unconscious  living  incubator 
awaits  the  pleasure  of  the  maggot.  Its  legs  are  limp  and 
motionless,  its  palpi  equally  still.  To  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses the  dejected  object  is  dead,  but  there  is  still  a  flutter 
of  life  in  the  outraged  body.  An  occasional  shudder,  barely 
discernable  under  the  lens,  a  labored  rise  and  fall  of  the  ab- 
dominal walls  evidences  the  tiny  spark  still  unquenched. 

In  two  days  the  young  wasp  emerges  from  the  egg, 
glues  its  mouth  to  the  plump  spider  and  commences  to  draw 
the  victim,  drop  by  drop,  into  its  own  body.  In  twenty-four 
hours  a  shriveling  sets  in.  Like  a  punctured  balloon  in  the 
sky,  the  spider  shrinks  before  the  maggot's  onslaught.  Later, 
in  order  to  taste  sweeter  fare,  the  ravenous  object  plunges 
its  head  within  the  breach.  It  drinks,  munches  and  revels  in 
the  spider's  anatomy;  eats  from  the  inside  to  the  out,  chews 
up  the  bony  walls,  continues  through  the  cephalothorax  and 
finally  consumes  the  legs.  Then  finding  no  more  it  pauses. 
After  five  days  of  orgy  it  is  time  to  digest.  Thus  the  spider 


PARALYZED   PROVENDER  4-39 

is  eaten  alive,  but  from  the  first  there  is  never  a  sign  of  pro- 
test, never  a  twinge  of  pain. 

As  an  experiment,  I  secured  several  other  spiders  para- 
lyzed by  the  same  wasp  whose  grub  I  have  described  at  its 
meal,  and  subjected  them  to  various  tests.  One  I  denude 
of  its  legs,  clipping  them  off  at  different  lengths,  thereby 
cutting  through  eight  different  nerves.  From  the  second  I 
clip  the  palpi,  severing  the  nerves,  and  into  the  abdomen 
of  the  third  I  thrust  a  slender  needle.  Throughout  these 
gross  indignities  the  spiders  lie  quite  motionless.  There  is  no 
contracting  of  leg  stumps,  no  drawing  in  of  injured  palpi, 
no  quiver  of  punctured  body.  There  is  no  response,  no  feel- 
ing in  the  creatures. 

Such  is  the  first  condition  of  paralysis.  We  find  it  in  a 
host  of  victims.  The  white-footed  wasp,  the  blue  huntress, 
the  black  reed-wasps  and  many  others  go  in  quest  of  the 
spider,  another  wasp  takes  frog-hoppers,  still  another,  lo- 
custs, and  there  are  many  others  that  I  will  not  mention. 
They  are  a  merciful  crowd.  Under  the  respective  jaws  of 
their  grubs,  the  victims  lie  completely  paralyzed,  relieved 
from  the  tortures  of  gradual  execution. 

The  second  form  of  paralysis  is,  as  I  have  stated,  much 
more  rarely  met  with.  At  the  present  time  I  know  of  only 
two  wasps  that  afflict  their  prey  in  this  manner,  but  they  will 
do  very  well  as  examples.  One  is  the  roach-killer  ( Chapter 
XXVI),  which  stores  her  earthen  cells  with  wood-roaches, 
the  other,  a  tiny  wasp  that  supplies  her  maggots  with  a 
cricket  each.  Her  nest  is  a  hollow  reed  lying  upon  the 
ground,  the  end  of  which  she  plugs  with  a  great  quantity  of 
wood — little  chunks  of  charcoal  from  the  can  burnings,  bits 
of  reeds,  tiny  twigs  and  woodchips  barricade  her  doorway. 
Therefore,  for  convenience  sake,  I  will  call  her  the  lumberess. 

The  modes  of  life  of  the  two  insects  are  in  most  respects 
widely  at  variance.  They  build  individual  types  of  nests, 
provision  them  differently,  choose  different  situations  for  the 
home  site  and  go  about  their  respective  businesses  in  separate 


440         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

ways.  It  is  important,  however,  that  the  two  have  a  single 
habit  in  common.  The  roach  victims  of  one  and  the  cricket 
prey  of  the  other  are  affected  in  the  same  manner  by  the 
stings  of  the  two  insects. 

I  have  before  me  two  crickets  of  the  lumberess  and  a 
dozen  roaches  of  the  roach-killer.  These  I  collected  from 
the  sealed  nests  of  the  insects.  Therefore,  to  the  best  of  my 
knowledge  they  have  been  stung  by  the  two  wasps.  I  find 
in  the  victims  a  physical  condition  entirely  different  from 
that  existing  in  the  spiders  paralyzed  by  the  white-footed 
wasp.  So  differently  are  they  affected  that  I  do  not  consider 
them  paralyzed  at  all. 

The  roaches  are  capable  of  moving  every  pair  of  legs, 
they  can  turn  the  head  from  side  to  side,  also  move  all  the 
mouth  parts  and  their  antennae.  But  strange  to  say  they 
lie  motionless  unless  I  touch  them  with  a  needle  or  the  tip 
of  my  pencil.  I  place  one  of  the  roaches  upon  its  feet.  It 
lies  absolutely  still  as  though  dead  until  I  touch  one  of  the 
protruding  appendages  at  the  posterior  end  of  its  body.  As 
I  do  so  it  jumps  foreward  without  much  effort,  in  the  act 
using  each  pair  of  legs.  TsTow  it  waves  its  antennae  back 
and  forth  for  a  few  seconds,  wriggles  its  mouth  and  settles 
back  into  its  torpor.  With  the  crickets  I  try  a  similar  ex- 
periment with  the  same  result.  Much  the  same  thing  appears 
to  take  place  in  these  victims  as  one  observes  in  a  sleeping 
dog,  whose  foot  has  been  tickled  with  a  straw.  It  is  quite 
peaceful  and  unconscious,  yet  its  nerves  and  muscles  respond 
automatically  to  rid  the  animal  of  its  annoyer. 

Certainly  then,  the  insects  are  not  paralyzed  at  this  time, 
any  more  than  a  sleeping  dog,  for  paralysis  means  the  loss  of 
power  to  contract  the  muscles,  an  accomplishment  of  which 
both  the  roaches  and  the  crickets  are  still  capable. 

Twenty-four  hours  later  I  experimented  again  upon  my 
subjects  with  a  result  similar  to  that  of  the  previous  day. 
I  let  another  twenty-four  hours  pass.  This  time,  at  the  touch 
of  my  pencil  point,  the  insect  responded  with  a  jump  far  less 


PARALYZED   PROVENDER  441 

energetic  than  before.  Every  hour  now  brings  a  weaker  re- 
action ;  at  length  there  is  little  or  no  response  to  my  efforts. 

The  sting  of  the  roach-killer  and  that  of  the  lumberess 
thrust  their  victims  into  painless  sleep.  The  poison's  action 
is  not  unlike  alcohol.  At  first  a  powerful  sleeping  potion 
followed  by  a  gradual,  ever-increasing  tying  of  the  muscles, 
until  they  cease  to  move  at  all.  Such  is  the  second  condition 
of  paralyzed  provender. 

Let  us  now  endeavor  to  discover  the  causes  leading  to 
these  two  distinct  types  of  paralysis  as  we  have  observed  them 
in  the  prey  of  solitary  wasps.  Having  already  glanced  at 
the  spider's  anatomy,  it  will  be  well  for  the  sake  of  compari- 
son, to  look  into  the  anatomy  of  the  roach.  In  the  first  place 
the  two  belong  to  different  phyla;  one  is  an  arachnid,  the 
other  an  insect.  Therefore  they  will  differ  physically. 

In  the  spider  we  find  the  ganglions  clustered  about  the 
oesophagus,  concentrated  into  one  particular  section  of  the 
body  and  easily  accessible.  In  the  roach  they  are  spread, 
more  or  less,  throughout  the  insect.  There  is  a  brain,  three 
pairs  of  ganglions  in  the  thorax,  followed  by  six  pairs  in  the 
abdomen,  a  problem  indeed  for  the  wasp  who  would  paralyze 
such  a  complicated  creature. 

I  have  not  been  fortunate  in  observing  either  the  roach- 
killer  or  the  lumberess  in  the  act  of  stinging  their  prey,  but 
here  is  what  I  believe  to  be  the  case  in  view  of  the  facts.  To 
reach  the  isolated  nerve  centers  at  the  outset,  to  bring  instant 
and  complete  paralysis  to  her  victim,  the  wasp  would  find  it 
necessary  to  drive  her  sting  into  as  many  different  places  as 
there  are  ganglions.  Judging  from  the  condition  of  the  prey 
it  is  a  feat  quite  beyond  either  the  roach-killer  or  the  lum- 
beress. Therefore  they  must  depend  upon  one  or  two  thrusts 
to  stun  the  insects.  As  the  sting  plunges  home  it  ejects  a 
tiny  drop  of  poison  which  gradually  spreads  throughout  the 
victim's  body,  bringing  on,  in  due  time,  the  gradual  paralysis 
that  we  have  observed. 


442         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

Gradual  paralysis  would  appear  to  be  dangerous  to 
young  wasps.  They  are  very  tender  creatures.  A  cricket 
or  roach  thrashing  about  within  the  cell  would  soon  cause 
fatal  bruises,  but  nature  has  looked  out  for  them  nicely.  If 
undisturbed,  the  roach  and  cricket  lie  quietly  enough.  Upon 
their  lower  surfaces  lie  the  wasp's  white  eggs,  but  they  are 
motionless.  In  forty-eight  hours  the  wasplets  emerge,  tiny 
creatures,  three  millimeters  in  length,  whose  baby  mouths 
do  not  disturb  the  sleepers.  In  another  day  they  begin  to 
really  chew  their  hosts,  but  by  this  time  paralysis  has  set  in. 

There  is  no  significance  in  the  two  types  of  paralysis. 
They  are  present  in  the  spider  and  the  roach,  simply  because 
of  the  physiological  difference  existing  between  the  two. 
Thus  the  grub  of  the  roach-killer  and  the  lumberess  and  those 
of  the  spider  hunters  live  much  the  same.  One  is  as  safe  in 
its  respective  cell  as  another,  so  there  we  shall  leave  them. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

CONTROLLED  PUPATION 

There  is  a  tree  in  the  Guiana  forest  which,  for  lack  of  a 
better  name,  I  call  the  vermillion-nut.  This  tree  ranks  high 
in  the  scale  of  giants.  It  towers  above  one,  reaching  more 
than  a  hundred  feet  above  the  forest  floor  where  it  throws 
out  its  rather  flattened  boughs  that  bear  a  thick  mass  of  foli- 
age, and  in  April,  a  vermillion  fruit.  This  fruit  is  lime 
shaped,  two  inches  in  length  by  one  and  a  quarter  inches  wide 
and  consists  of  a  moderately  tough,  pubescent  vermillion 
shell,  guarding  the  soft,  greenish  inner  pulp  that  surrounds 
the  true  nut.  The  pulp  is  soft  and  quite  sweet,  but  incipient 
and  the  nut  is  as  hard  as  a  fresh  almond  and  slightly  over 
twice  as  large.  Even  to  botanists  its  name  is  unknown. 

Troups  of  howling  monkeys  make  daily  visits  to  these 
trees,  gorging  themselves  for  hours  on  the  juicy  pulp  and 
throwing  the  shells,  bearing  their  teeth  marks,  to  the  ground 
below.  One  must  either  lie  upon  the  back  or  suffer  a  cramped 
neck  to  observe  them  feeding  in  the  top-most  branches.  Even 
then  they  are  often  screened  from  one's  sight  by  the  masses 
of  heavy  foliage  that  characterize  the  vermillion-nut. 

Other  animals  find  the  food  to  their  liking  also.  Agouti, 
smaller  species  of  monkeys,  and  a  host  of  wild  bees  feed  daily 
beneath  the  everlasting  twilight  of  these  branches.  One 
might  spend  a  year  studying  the  creatures  that  feed  upon 
the  fruit  which  is  often  scattered  abundantly  among  the  rot- 
ting vegetation  on  the  ground  for  a  hundred  feet  in  every 
direction. 

In  the  latter  part  of  April,  I  came  upon  a  band  of  howl- 
ers feasting  in  one  of  these  trees.  They  were  easily  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  feet  from  the  ground,  yet,  quite  uncon- 
scious of  the  dizzy  height,  they  reached  here  and  there  for 


444         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

the  fruit,  seldom  clinging  to  the  branches  with  other  than 
the  hind  legs.  They  ate  with  great  relish  and  greed,  pluck- 
ing far  more  than  they  could  possibly  eat.  Consequently 
many  nuts  were  dropped  quite  untouched,  and  wasted.  Cur- 
ious as  to  the  quality  of  the  fruit,  I  picked  one  up  and  split 
it  apart.  To  my  surprise  it  contained  eleven  light  yellow 
maggots,  that  writhed  about  actively  and  tried  to  escape 
from  their  late  prison.  They  had  eaten  the  soft  pulp  entirely 
away,  leaving  only  a  mass  of  brown  excretia  and  the  inner 
nut,  which  was  free  and  rattled  about  when  I  replaced  the 
shell  which  had  been  cut  away.  Thus  by  chance  I  discovered 
the  subject  of  this  chapter  in  its  strange  cradle  among  the 
tree-tops,  where  it  has  doubtless  fed  in  its  larval  state  since 
the  first  vermillion-nut  blossomed  in  the  branches  of  its 
parent.  This  is  a  new  species  of  fly  belonging  to  the  family, 
Trepetidae  and  the  genus  Spilographa. 

When  and  how  the  mature  insect  deposits  her  eggs  with- 
in the  nut  is  beyond  me.  It  would  be  necessary  to  live  in  the 
loftiest  branches  to  ascertain  such  a  fact.  One  glance  at  a 
vermillion-nut  tree  would  stand  as  evidence  of  its  infeasibil- 
ity.  One  thing  we  do  know ;  the  insect  is  a  fly,  as  shown  by 
the  larva,  a  typical  fly  maggot,  with  eleven  segments  count- 
ing the  head.  It  tapers  from  a  well  rounded  segment  at  the 
posterior  end,  almost  to  a  point  at  the  head,  which  is  sup- 
plied with  two  hooks  turned  downwards  like  the  claws  of  a 
cat.  It  is  transparent  yellowish  white  and  through  its  entire 
body  one  may  trace  a  pair  of  respiratory  tubes  with  one  set 
of  openings  in  the  head  and  the  other  in  the  last  segment  of 
the  body.  These  orifices,  two  in  front,  two  behind,  stamp 
the  creature  as  a  young  or  larval  fly. 

The  eggs  are  probably  deposited  when  the  fruit  is  still 
soft  and  immature  or  perhaps  the  scent  of  the  tree's  blos- 
soms beckon  to  the  insect.  I  can  but  surmise.  Later  the 
eggs  give  place  to  tiny  wiggling  larvae  whose  movements 
depend  upon  contractions  of  their  muscles,  for  they  are  de- 


CONTROLLED   PUPATION  445 

void  of  feet.  They  feast  like  gluttons  upon  the  nascent  flesh 
of  the  ripening  fruit  until  it  comes  time  to  pupate. 

From  what  we  know  of  many  other  flies,  we  have  seen 
that  it  is  natural  for  them  to  pupate  within  the  ground,  or 
at  least  in  a  position  from  which  they  may  work  their  way 
to  the  light  of  day  when  nature  has  transformed  them  into 
perfect  insects.  The  larval  flesh  fly  burrows  below  her  car- 
rion to  transform  in  the  damp  soil  beneath,  the  house  fly  in 
its  bed  of  manure  finds  escape  an  easy  matter,  the  mosquito 
transforms  in  the  water,  but  what  of  our  flies  born  within  a 
tough-shelled  nut,  in  the  highest  forest  branches?  How  are 
they  to  release  themselves  from  such  a  prison  after  the  feast 
is  over?  As  we  have  seen,  they  reach  the  ground  by  falling, 
when  the  nut  is  plucked  by  some  roaming  monkey  or  as  it 
falls  anyway  when  ripe,  carrying  its  living  burden  earth- 
ward. But  that  is  not  answering  the  question.  The  larvae 
must  burrow  into  the  forest  soil  to  transform  and  issue  suc- 
cessfully as  a  perfect  insect.  How  then  is  this  feat  accom- 
plished ? 

The  nut  which  I  cut  open  contained  eleven  larvae. 
They  appear  to  be  full  grown  and  ready  to  pupate,  at  any 
rate  there  is  no  more  pulp  left  for  them,  and  if  they  are  hun- 
gry they  must  eat  again  that  which  has  already  been  digested 
once.  No,  they  simply  wriggle  about  frantically,  as  though 
searching  for  an  opening,  and  swarm  to  the  hole  I  have  cut. 

I  remove  two  of  them  to  tubes  of  soil  slightly  dampened. 
The  remainder  are  locked  once  more  in  their  prison.  In  the 
tubes  conditions  are,  as  near  as  I  can  make  them,  like  those 
of  the  forest  floor.  The  larvae  move  here  and  there  from 
fright  in  their  new  environment  for  a  minute  or  two,  but 
presently  one  thrusts  its  pointed  head  into  the  soil  and  com- 
mences to  burrow.  Soon  it  is  followed  by  the  other  larvae 
in  their  respective  tubes.  In  twenty  minutes  all  have  disap- 
peared below  the  surface. 

Two  days  later  I  remove  the  material  from  the  tubes  in 
search  of  the  larvae.  They  have  burrowed  slightly  over  half 


446 


TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 


FIG.  141.    VERMILLION-NUT  OPENED  TO  SHOW  IMPRISONED 

LARVAE  OF  VERMILLION-NUT  FLY. 

Enlarged  twice  natural  size. 

an  inch  below  the  surface  and  all  have  transformed  into  little 
yellow  kegs  with  ten  red  hoops  running  around  them.  Under 
the  lens  these  hoops  appear  to  be  tiny  bands  of  stitches  like 
those  in  the  cover  of  a  baseball.  In  these  pupae  we  have  con- 
vincing evidence  that  our  fly  naturally  transforms  below  the 
ground,  especially  so  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  larvae  left 
within  the  nut  are  still  strictly  larvae  in  every  sense  of  the 
word. 

I  remove  two  more  of  the  imprisoned  ones  from  the  nut 
to  freshly  prepared  tubes  of  earth.    Two  days  later  I  have 


CONTROLLED   PUPATION  447 

the  same  result  from  my  experiment.  Those  within  the  tubes 
have  transformed  to  pupae,  but  those  imprisoned  in  the  ver- 
million-nut  still  writhe  in  the  larval  form.  I  keep  the  prison- 
ers in  their  cell  from  April  20  until  the  twelfth  of  May. 
Still  there  is  no  change  from  the  larval  form,  yet  any  day 
I  may  remove  one  to  a  tube  of  earth  and  forty-eight  hours 
later  recover  it  as  a  pupa!  It  is  a  strange  condition  indeed, 
but  I  think  I  see  its  significance. 

When  I  open  the  fruit  on  the  tenth  of  May,  I  note  that 
the  true  nut  within  has  sprouted  ever  so  slightly.  Each  day 
the  cotyledons  of  the  new  tree  are  swelling  within  the  shell 
that  holds  them,  pushing  upwards  in  response  to  the  light 
which  beckons.  Were  the  nut  lying  naturally  upon  the  moist 
floor  of  the  forest,  the  young  tree's  progress  would  be  even 
faster.  As  length  the  pressure  becomes  too  great  for  the 
nut's  outer  shell  to  bear.  It  yields  to  the  vortex  of  a  new  life, 
splits  open  and  at  the  same  time  the  imprisoned  larvae  find 
the  long-waited-for  exit  to  the  friendly  mould  of  the  forest. 

Here  is  a  condition  among  insects  previously  unknown 
to  me.  It  is  a  remarkable  adaption  to  the  condition  of  the 
creature's  strange  habitat,  that  has  brought  about  a  deviation 
from  the  rule.  In  short,  the  young  flies  may  hasten  or  post- 
pone pupation  at  will!  I  would  have  hesitated  to  set  forth 
such  a  statement,  even  as  a  remote  possibility,  were  it  not 
for  my  experiments  that  cannot  be  denied.  One  learns  to 
expect  the  unexpected  in  nature,  but  who  would  go  so  far 
as  to  accuse  her  of  running  even  so  tiny  a  creature  as  this 
nascent  fly,  without  a  schedule?  She  is  forced  to  surrender 
here  to  conditions  self-imposed.  If  her  children  within  the 
vermillion-nut  lie  imprisoned  without  food  for  a  fortnight 
or  more,  it  matters  not.  When  release  comes  they  are  none 
the  worse  for  their  experience.  If  they  are  spilled  roughly 
on  the  ground  from  a  freshly  broken  nut  a  month  before 
their  brothers,  so  much  the  better.  They  have  no  set  time  for 
pupation.  They  will  become  flies  just  the  same!  Thus 
Nature  has  endowed  them  with  ability  to  meet  successfully, 


448         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

the  strange  circumstances  in  which  she  herself  has  placed 
them. 

Let  us  see  what  has  happened  to  the  larva  that  has  bur- 
rowed beneath  the  surface  of  the  ground.  Why  must  such 
an  active  creature  entomb  itself  again  upon  being  liberated 
from  its  original  prison? 

Unlike  ourselves  or  animals  and  birds,  insects  pass 
through  a  series  of  stages,  one  might  say,  almost  by  jumps. 
At  first  we  have  an  egg,  quite  helpless,  but  deposited  with 
due  care  and  forethought  by  its  provident  bearer.  In  a  day 
or  so,  this  helpless  egg  has  become  a  ten-ringed  maggot  with 
a  head,  appendages  for  drawing  in  its  food  and  possessed  of 
a  primitive  but  efficient  set  of  organs.  It  is  not  an  actual 
hatching  as  we  see  it  in  a  hen's  egg  that  has  brought  this 
strange  creature  into  the  world,  but  a  fading  of  egg  into 
maggot.  There  is  no  empty  shell  when  the  process  is  finished, 
no  spectre  of  the  creature's  former  self.  The  process  is  like 
that  of  a  moving  picture  which  fades  before  one's  eyes  from 
one  scene  to  the  next  which  is  widely  different. 

In  its  newly  acquired  form,  the  insect  feeds  as  we  have 
seen  upon  the  vermillion-nut  pulp,  remaining  unchanged 
except  in  size,  until  fate  releases  it  upon  the  moist  forest 
floor,  when  with  a  haste  that  is  almost  frantic  it  immediately 
imprisons  itself  once  more,  this  time  in  the  ground  wherever 
it  chances  to  find  itself.  Forty-eight  hours  later  we  discover 
it  as  a  tiny  yellow  keg  banded  with  red  stitches,  as  though  it 
had  buried  itself  for  good  in  a  self-fashioned  coffin. 

Has  the  insect  become  so  accustomed  to  the  blackness 
of  prison  life  that  it  cannot  live  in  a  world  of  sunlight  ?  Must 
it  live  the  life  of  a  mole  because  it  has  only  once  seen  the 
brightness  of  day?  No,  there  is  a  far  deeper  reason  than 
these  that  send  it  so  hastily  into  the  ground.  It  is  about  to 
undergo  its  last  and  greatest  transformation,  one  during 
which  it  will  be  once  more  utterly  helpless  against  the  slight- 
est odds.  It  must  lie  very  still  as  though  in  death,  lest  the 


CONTROLLED  PUPATION  449 

beautiful  process  within  be  interrupted  and  the  design 
shattered. 

Up  to  now,  the  insect  has  resembled  its  ancestral  fam- 
ily, less  highly  developed  worm-like  creatures  of  another  day. 
Just  as  we  have  developed  from  less  perfect  creatures,  so 
has  the  fly.  Within  the  little  yellow  keg  a  wonderful  change 
is  in  process. 

At  first  the  maggot,  so  recently  an  active  definite  crea- 
ture, is  seized  upon  by  a  host  of  nature's  strangest  forces. 
We  cannot  see  them  or  give  them  any  definite  form.  Never- 
theless they  are  there,  like  a  great  group  of  wreckers,  carpen- 
ters, masons,  painters  and  decorators.  The  larva  or  maggot, 
the  ancestral  form,  is  torn  down  and  reduced  to  a  disinte- 
grated mass  of  fluid.  From  this  utter  wreck  of  what  was 
so  lately  a  crawling,  organized  creature,  the  final  insect  is 
resurrected.  From  old  tissues,  new  ones  spring,  from  what 
was  old  and  out  of  date,  a  more  modern  creature  is  erected. 
The  yellow  keg  is  no  longer  a  coffin,  but  a  factory  where  a 
host  of  raw  materials  are  to  be  transformed  into  the  finished 
product ! 

The  process  is  comparable  to  tearing  down  an  old  fash- 
ioned house  and  erecting  a  modern  one  on  the  old  founda- 
tions. Much  of  the  old  material  is  used  and  that  which  must 
be  replaced  by  new  is  burned  or  otherwise  disposed  of.  So 
it  is  with  the  tissues  of  the  maggot.  From  the  old  house  we 
save  the  plumbing,  the  wiring  and  the  kitchen  range,  which 
corresponds  in  the  maggot  to  the  reproductive  glands,  the 
nervous  system  and  the  heart,  which  are  left  intact,  or  at 
most  altered  and  attended  to. 

At  length  it  becomes  time  for  the  painters  and  decor- 
tors.  Nature  employs  a  vast  army  of  these.  In  the  keg, 
after  ten  days,  the  milky  white  and  partly  transparent,  but 
otherwise  perfect  insect  commences  to  receive  its  color.  It 
appears  first  in  the  eyes  with  an  influx  of  emerald  green  pig- 
ment studded  with  golden,  microscopical  dots,  which  are  fol- 
lowed in  forty-eight  hours  by  the  appearance  of  black  pat- 


450         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

terns  upon  the  legs  and  wings,  due  to  more  or  less  dense 
hair  upon  these  appendages  into  which  the  color  gradually 
flows.  Upon  the  back  of  the  head  there  is  a  pattern  of  hairs 
and  another  of  longer  ones  upon  the  thorax,  while  the  abdo- 
men likewise  suddenly  appears  clouded  with  pubescence. 
Further  than  this  no  ground  color  or  markings  can  be  seen, 
owing  to  the  color  being  much  like  the  shell  of  the  keg  itself. 

In  another  forty-eight  hours,  fourteen  days  after  pupa- 
tion, the  fly  emerges  by  splitting  the  head  of  the  pupal  keg 
in  two  equal  parts.  This  is  a  simple  operation  as  the  shell 
is  not  too  substantial,  but  the  new-born  fly  has  yet  another 
task  before  it  will  be  free.  It  has  yet  to  dig  a  passage  from 
its  tomb  to  the  light  of  day.  It  must  be  done  quickly,  lest 
the  wings  fill  and  dry  too  small  and  their  usefulness  be  lost. 

For  this  purpose  the  insect  is  supplied  with  a  battering- 
ram,  which  protrudes  between  the  eyes  at  birth  from  the  pu- 
pal case.  It  is  a  transparent  sack-like  appendage  which  may 
be  expanded  or  contracted  at  will  by  the  fly.  It  contains  no 
apparatus  of  any  kind,  but  is  apparently  the  forehead  of  the 
insect  capable  of  expansion.  To  watch  the  operation  of  this 
strange  appendage  is  remarkable.  First  it  swells  like  a  toy 
balloon  when  air  is  blown  into  it,  until  it  protrudes  two  or 
more  millimeters  in  front  of  the  insect's  head,  pushing  the 
sand  or  earth  in  front  of  it  as  it  increases.  This  is  followed 
by  a  rapid  deflation  of  the  ram  which  leaves  an  indentation 
into  which  the  fly  struggles  with  great  effort.  Now  the  first 
operation  is  repeated ;  the  second  indentation  made  and  again 
the  insect  wedges  itself  into  it.  Thus,  after  an  hour,  if  the 
fly  is  fortunate,  it  reaches  the  surface  of  the  ground,  where 
it  rests  for  a  time  to  recover  its  strength,  before  launching 
into  a  new  and  sunlit  world  once  more  to  search  out  the 
vermillion-nut,  this  time  as  a  nursery  for  its  own  offspring. 


PART  IV 
SUPPLEMENTARY  CHAPTERS 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

NOTES  PROM  THE  HINTERLAND  OF  GUIANA 

By  the  Rev.  Walter  G.  White,  F.  R.  G.  S.f  B.  E.  N.  A. a 

In  responding  to  Mr.  William  Beebe's  invitation  to  con- 
tribute a  chapter  to  the  book  he  intends  to  publish,  my  ob- 
ject is,  simply  to  stimulate  interest  in  a  little-known  corner 
of  the  Colony.  It  is  hoped  that,  hereby,  someone  may  be  led 
to  pitch  his  tent  and  to  study  wild  life  there,  before  existing 
species  of  the  fauna  and  flora  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  many 
Indian  customs,  and  become  as  extinct  as  the  dodo. 

Just  prior  to  our  recall  from  this  inaccessible  district, 
there  was  published,  in  England,  in  a  leaflet  of  the  British 
Empire  Naturalists'  Association,  an  offer  of  mine,  to  give 
a  naturalist  a  free  passage  up  in  the  missionary's  boat,  free 
quarters,  food,  the  use  of  a  small  tent-boat  with  sleeping  ac- 
commodation, the  loan  of  horses,  guides,  interpreters,  and 
a  free  passage  down,  after  some  months  of  research.  In 
return,  the  visitor  was  expected  to  impart  some  of  the  infor- 
mation collected,  and  to  afford  my  wife  and  myself  help  in 
acquiring  a  sensible  knowledge  of  the  natural  history  of  our 
environment.  The  mention  of  this  abortive  attempt  may, 
perhaps,  inspire  others  to  find  similar  ways  of  furthering 
scientific  research,  which  is  so  greatly  hampered  by  the  cost 
of  special  outfits  and  transport  to  distant  places. 

I  am  flattered  by  the  invitation  to  contribute  notes  to 
such  a  book  as  this,  as  I  lay  no  claim  to  scientific  training. 
Years  ago  I  knew  every  bird  to  be  found  in  North  Oxon, 
by  its  flight,  song,  nest,  (if  it  bred  there)  and  eggs — all,  or 
any.  In  this  Colony  very  few  of  the  names,  popular  or  sci- 
entific, of  species  are  known  to  me.  I  know  the  musical 

-1B.  E.  N.   A.— British  Empire  Naturalists'  Association. 


454         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

Indian  names  (many  of  which  are  onomatapoetic)  of  the 
various  creatures.  Mr.  James  Rodway  has  done  his  best, 
upon  insufficient  particulars,  to  furnish  me  with  scientific 
names  and  those  popular  names  which  I  had  not  discovered. 
To  give  only  Makuchi  names  would  serve  little  purpose:  so 
it  is  necessary  to  afford  some  sort  of  guide  to  readers  by 
means  of  the  scientific  names. 

One  of  my  first  duties  was  to  learn  the  Makuchi  lan- 
guage, and  to  make  translations.  Natural  history  records 
were,  until  latterly,  of  a  rough  and  ready  kind.  It  was  found 
that  a  knowledge  of  the  language  enabled  me  to  tap  a  mine 
of  information,  as  the  Indians,  collectively,  though  not  indi- 
vidually, know  the  outer  life  history  of  most  forms  of  wild 
life  in  their  country.  An  Indian  interpreter  cannot  get  this 
information,  as  he  has  no  personal  knowledge  of  the  subject 
as  handled  by  scientists.  A  European,  with  some  personal 
knowledge  of  natural  history,  can  do  better  when  he  has  a 
working  knowledge  of  the  language. 

General  nature  of  the  country :  The  district  under  men- 
tion lies  between  Latitudes  3  and  4.20  N.,  and  is  enclosed 
by  Longitudes  58  and  60  W.  In  the  North  are  the  Maka- 
rapan  and  the  fringes  of  the  Pakaraimas.  The  South  is 
walled  by  the  Kanukus.  The  Essequibo  forms  a  natural 
boundary,  on  the  East;  the  Takutu  and  the  Ireng,  on  the 
West.  The  district  is  drained  by  the  Rapo-nunni,  with  its 
tributaries  the  Katoka,  the  Thewarikuru,  the  Binoni,  and  the 
Rewa,  with  the  Kwatata  and  the  Kwitaro,  which  are  afflu- 
ents of  the  second  and  the  fourth  named.  The  Mokamoka 
and  the  Manari  are  tributaries  of  the  Takutu;  while  the 
Piara  flows  from  the  fabulous  Lake  Amuku  into  the  Ireng, 
receiving  its  affluent,  the  Napi,  entering  from  the  South. 
Numerous  other  creeks  need  not  be  named.  Most  of  them 
have  no  continuity  during  the  dry  season,  at  that  period, 
but  a  series  of  disconnected  ponds  and  swamps.  The  trav- 
eler should  be  provided  with  water  ere  setting  out  across  the 
savannahs,  especially  in  the  dry  season,  for  it  is  possible  to 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  455 

walk  fifteen,  or  even  twenty  miles,  in  certain  directions,  with- 
out finding  anything  drinkable. 

Taking  the  region  between  the  Pakaraimas  and  the 
Kamikus,  the  Rapo-nunni  and  the  Takutu,  one  may  describe 
it  as,  principally,  savannah.  There  are  levels,  some  of  them 
bare,  at  the  foot  of  the  Pakaraimas,  and  other  levels,  mostly 
dotted  with  stunted  growths,  at  the  foot  of  the  Kanukus. 
The  intervening  country  is  rising  ground,  extending  from 
the  Takutu  to  the  Rapo-nunni,  the  higher  parts  being  to- 
wards the  latter  river.  These  low  hills  are  dotted  with  stunt- 
ed trees,  and  carry  a  coarse  grass,  which  grows  in  tufts. 
There  are  intervening  hollows  with  swamps,  or  swampy 
ground,  according  to  the  season.  These  damp  patches  are, 
usually,  outlined  with  kwai,  or  ita  palms.  Here  and  there  are 
nullahs  blocked  with  thick  growths  and  trees.  Lake  Amuku 
does  not  exist.  There  is  a  small  pond  during  the  dry  sea- 
son, and  the  levels  about  it  are  flooded  during  the  rains, 
giving  the  appearance  of  a  large  lake.  Examination  shows 
trees  growing  through  the  water,  in  the  middle  of  the  "lake." 
An  important  pond,  in  respect  of  size,  is  Mare-kupu  (Mare 
— gravel;  kupu — pond),  secreted  in  the  Mare-pupu  bush. 
Tawrong  Thamu  Pethaku  Kupu  is  a  pond  surrounded  by 
swampy  land,  thus  presenting  a  considerable  expanse  of  wa- 
ter. Other  ponds  of  interest  are  the  Parishara,  the  Steamed 
and  Warabai.  Throughout  the  course  of  the  river  are  many 
backwaters,  some  of  which  appear  to  be  old  ponds  which 
were  tapped  by  the  stream,  on  its  way.  The  Indians  call 
them  all  kupu.  They  are  splendid  hunting-grounds  for  fish. 
The  smaller  ones  are  dammed,  or  staked,  to  prevent  the  es- 
cape of  fish,  and  are  poisoned,  by  beating  out  the  roots  of  the 
atha,  along  the  brink  and  from  woodskins  paddled  criss- 
cross over  the  surface.  The  stupefied  fish  show  white  and 
rise  to  the  top,  where  the  larger  ones  are  shot  with  bow  and 
arrow,  and  the  smaller  ones  are  picked  up  by  hand.  If  left 
for  a  time,  or  if  placed  in  fresh  water,  the  fish  recover.  Tak- 
ing his  hammock  and  slinging  in  the  open,  at  night,  a  natur- 


456         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

alist  will  find  much  profit  in  accompanying  a  fish-poisoning 
expedition,  in  the  form  of  a  two-days'  picnic.  The  savannah 
region  described  above  is  broken  up  by  some  extensive  woods, 
or  bush.  The  important  ones  are:  The  Maru-kupu  bush, 
extending  from  the  Rapo-nunni,  at  Karenampu,  several 
miles  westward,  enclosing  the  pond,  on  its  way;  the  Binoni 
bush,  to  the  north  of  the  famed  Kwaimata  village;  the 
Marakanata  bush,  about  fifteen  miles  to  the  west  of  the 
Pokaru,  and  the  Kwatata  bush,  which  screens  the  creek  of 
that  name  and  a  portion  of  the  Warikuru. 

Examining  the  region  of  the  Rapo-nunni,  extending 
across  the  Rewa  to  the  Essequibo :  There  is  savannah  land, 
broken  by  narrow  lines  of  low  bush,  along  the  left  bank  of 
the  river,  from  Masar  Landing  to  just  past  Anai  Landing. 
Thence  to  the  Essequibo  is  big  forest.  On  the  right  bank 
of  the  river,  from  Katoka  creek  to  Simuni  creek,  is  savannah, 
with  ponds,  swamps  and  tangles  here  and  there.  Aback 
from  the  Simuni  to  the  Rewa  is  big  forest.  At  the  bend, 
opposite  Massara  Landing,  is  more  savannah.  East  of  this 
savannah,  passing  the  mouth  of  the  Rewa,  to  the  Essequibo, 
is  more  big  forest,  broken  up  with  glades,  in  which  the  grass 
grows  rankly.  The  whole  of  this  stretch,  save  for  a  few 
isolated  Indian  houses,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rapo-nunni, 
and  the  depots,  at  the  mouth,  is  uninhabited.  For  conven- 
ience of  reference  we  may  speak  of  the  Rewa  forest,  the 
Bend  savannah,  the  Simuni  bush,  the  Katoka  savannah,  and 
the  Uruata  forest.  The  last  begins  at  the  Katoka  creek  and 
extends  to  the  Kanakus,  on  both  sides  of  the  Rapo-nunni. 

From  the  site  of  the  old  Kwatata  village,  along  the  de- 
pression which  makes  a  bed  for  the  creek,  extending  west- 
wards beyond  Marakanata  village  is  a  wonderful  grove  of 
kwai  palms.  At  the  southern  foot  of  the  hill  upon  which 
Marakanata  stands,  the  grove  expands  and  encloses  a  pond. 
The  thousands  upon  thousands  of  palm  trees  make  a  mag- 
nificent picture.  There  is  another  long  belt  of  kwai  palms, 
running  almost  parallel  with  the  Tukutu,  near  to  this  river. 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  457 

My  meteorological  records,  carefully  maintained  at  the 
Mission  for  over  two  years,  give  the  following  results,  which 
may,  with  advantage,  be  noted  by  anyone  intending  to  settle 
in  the  district  for  any  length  of  time  to  study  wild  life. 

1914  Totaf  rainfall,  20  inches,  25  parts 

1915  60       "        62      " 

In  the  former  year  rain  fell  upon  161  days,  and  in  the 
latter  year,  upon  176  days. 

Temperature  between  6  and  7  A.  M.  varied  from  68 
to  75  degrees  Fahr.,  during  1914,  the  lowest  being  recorded 
during  the  period  January-March. 

Temperature  between  6  and  7  A.  M.  varied  from  69 
to  75  degrees  Fahr.,  during  1915,  the  lowest  being  reached 
in  February  only. 

Minimum  temperature,  taken  with  instrument  supplied 
by  Government,  wras  62  degrees  Fahr.  in  January,  and  58 
degrees  Fahr.  in  December,  1915,  only.  I  found  traveling 
during  the  latter  part  of  1915,  required  taking  a  thick  blank- 
et. The  cold,  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning,  frequently 
awoke  me. 

The  maximum  shade  temperature,  between  the  hours 
of  1  and  2  P.  M.,  was  94  degrees  Fahr.,  in  1914,  (October.) 

The  maximum  during  the  same  hours,  was  103  Fahr.,  in 
1915.  (August.) 

True  maximum,  shade,  day-time,  reached  105  Fahr.,  in 
August,  1915,  upon  one  occasion  only. 

I  found,  by  experience,  that  true  maximum  for  any  day 
was,  usually,  recorded  after  2  P.  M. 

The  coolest  months  of  the  year  were  shown  to  be  De- 
cember, January,  February,  and  the  early  part  of  March. 
There  were  some  close  days,  during  the  December  and  Janu- 
ary rains,  which  caused  little,  or  no  flooding,  and  no  incon- 
venience to  traveling  by  land.  After  the  heavy  rains  of 
May-July,  the  days  are  close  and  clammy,  until  the  strong 
winds  set  in,  from  about  the  middle  of  October.  Strong 
winds  occur  before,  intermittently. 


458         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

During  the  heavy  rains,  serious  flooding  of  the  district 
occurs,  in  normal  years.  In  spite  of  the  myriads  of  mosqui- 
toes and  kabouri  flies,  which  come  as  one  of  the  Plagues  of 
Egypt,  the  naturalist  should  not  flee  the  country,  for  he  will 
see  things,  now,  which  hide  away  during  the  drier  months. 
Jaguars  and  other  animals  and  snakes  are  driven  from  the 
nullahs  and  low  lands,  and  may  be  seen,  caught,  or  shot,  as 
they  wander,  homeless,  about  the  higher  ground.  Fish  are 
migrating  upstream,  and  are  scattering  through  the  creeks 
and  ponds  and  even  with  the  floods,  to  mate  and  to  spawn. 
And  insects  come  forth  in  cosmopolitan  crowds,  especially 
when  lights  are  shown,  at  night. 

The  elevation  of  the  district  is  surprisingly  low  if  the 
traveler  considers  the  number  of  falls  and  rapids  he  has  left 
behind,  on  his  way  up  the  rivers.  Somewhat  to  the  west  of 
Masara  Landing  is  Mt.  Egerton,  named  after  His  Excel- 
lency, Sir  Walter  Egerton,  who  visited  the  Hinterland  and 
ascended  this  hill,  in  1913.  Its  elevation  is  given  as  being 
2,050  feet.  This  is  the  highest  point  at  the  southern  end  of 
the  Pakaraimas.  Mr.  C.  W.  Anderson  gives  the  average 
elevation  of  the  savannahs  as  300  feet.  This  cannot  be  ap- 
plied to  any  parts  save  the  depressions.  Mt.  Egerton  (2,050 
feet)  is  not  1,700  feet  above  the  savannah  level.  The  district 
therefore,  may  be  said  to  comprise  the  low  lands  of  the  inte- 
rior. The  high  lands  exist  about  the  Upper  Potaro  and 
extend  towards  Roraima. 

The  prevailing  winds  are  the  northeast  trades.  Most 
of  the  rain  is  brought  by  them,  and  the  falls  are  ushered  in 
with  quasi-hurricanes,  which  shake  the  houses.  The  cloud- 
bank  rises  over  the  Essequibo  and,  generally  splits,  when 
approaching  the  Makarapan.  One  pack  sweeps  along  the 
Pakaraimas,  perhaps  bursting  out  as  far  as  Mare-kupu  bush, 
the  other  pack  passes  over  the  Rewa  forest  to  Urtiata  for- 
est along  the  Kanukus.  A  diagonal  belt,  which  includes 
most  of  the  open  savannah  land,  with  the  rising  Theopokaru- 
kuni  (Theopokaru-hill)  receives  less  rain  than  the  regions 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  459 

to  the  north  and  south,  towards  the  mountains.  Strangely 
enough,  the  Roman  Mission,  on  the  Takutu,  comes  into  this 
belt.  A  map  indicating  isotherms  would  reveal  the  fact  that 
the  average  temperature  of  this  zone  is  higher  than  that  of 
the  zones  to  north  and  south,  although  I  have  known  it  to 
be  so  hot  upon  the  Masara  savannah  as  to  cause  an  Indian 
drogher  to  be  nauseated  continually,  as  he  walked  in,  to  Tuka 
Village.  Upon  the  savannahs,  so  much  depends  upon  wheth- 
er one  faces,  or  travels  with  the  wind,  or  the  set  of  the  air. 
Those  who  intend  to  do  research  work  would  be  well  advised 
to  make  quick  marches  outward,  when  investigations  take 
them  to  leeward  of  their  camp,  and  to  work  back  against 
the  wind.  The  extra  comfort  and  the  comparative  freedom 
from  savannah  flies  are  worth  securing.  Those  who  wish  to 
track  animals,  will,  for  other  reasons,  work  against  the  wind. 

How  to  reach  the  district:  It  is  possible  to  take  an 
ocean  boat  up  the  Amazon,  proceed  up  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
take  a  launch  up  the  Takutu  (so  called)  to  the  Ireng.  The 
journey  from  Georgetown  is  made  by  steamer  to  Wismar 
and  train  to  Rockstone  (one  day's  journey),  thence,  by 
launch,  to  Potaro  Mouth  (another  day's  run).  The  usual 
custom  is,  for  the  passengers  to  take  this  course,  and  for  the 
captain,  bowman,  and  crew  to  start  from  Rockstone,  where 
the  boats  are  loaded.  Nearly  a  week  will  elapse  between  the 
time  of  their  leaving  Town,  and  arriving  with  the  laden 
boat  at  Potaro  Mouth.  The  launch  to  Potaro  Mouth  some- 
times has  to  make  several  attempts  before  it  succeeds  in 
crossing  Crab  Falls.  We  left  Town  and  stayed  at  Wismar, 
while  the  boat  was  being  loaded;  thus  we  were  a  week  in 
reaching  Potaro  Mouth. 

At  the  present  time,  occasional  travelers  may  obtain 
free  passage  up  to  Rapo-nunni  Mouth  in  a  balata  boat,  go- 
ing up  empty,  to  bring  down  balata.  These  opportunities 
occur  at  the  end  of  the  rains.  Goods  will  be  taken  up  in 
these  boats  at  the  rate  of  three  cents  a  pound,  from  Rock- 
stone,  or  Potaro  Mouth.  At  the  beginning  of  the  rains,  and 


460         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

before  the  rains — January  to  May — boats  go  up  full,  with 
laborers  and  provisions,  and  often  return  empty.  At  such 
times  it  is  possible  to  send  down  packages  from  Rapo-nunni 
Mouth.  The  boats  of  the  two  Missions  might,  also,  render 
some  services,  when  running,  which  is  not  often.  It  might 
be  found  advisable  to  hire  a  boat  for  the  whole  period,  for 
crews  for  the  down-trips  can  be  collected  upon  the  savannahs. 
Some  might  prefer  to  buy  a  new  boat,  fitted  according  to 
requirements.  The  cost  would  vary  from  $130  to  $180,  com- 
plete, with  fittings.  Through  the  Protector  of  Indians  it 
would  be  possible  to  procure  a  crew,  with  captain  and  bow- 
man, from  the  savannahs.  These  Indians  would  scatter  to 
their  homes,  upon  arrival;  they  need  not  be  maintained  nor 
paid  during  the  following  months ;  and  they,  or  others,  would 
be  available  when  it  was  desired  to  send  the  boat  down  again. 
To  take  a  crew  from  Town  would  entail  much  more  expense, 
and  would  be  less  satisfactory.  Incidentally,  the  Indians 
can  hunt  and  fish,  on  the  way  up,  and  can  procure  a  needed 
change  of  diet.  From  Potaro  Mouth  to  Sipruni  Mouth 
occupied  us  just  a  week.  Another  week  had  fled  when  we 
reached  Inkapati,  not  far  from  the  confluence  of  the  Rapo- 
nunni  and  Essequibo.  To  the  Mission  Landing  from  Inka- 
pati may  be  anything  from  six  to  nine  days,  according  to  the 
state  of  the  river.  We  took  exactly  a  month  from  George- 
town to  the  Mission,  in  October,  1913.  The  journey  up  the 
Essequibo  is  made  over  many  rapids  and  falls.  It  is  ardu- 
ous and  dangerous.  The  traveler  is  probably  more  inter- 
ested in  the  experiences  and  delighted  with  the  scenery  than 
oppressed  by  a  sense  of  danger.  At  Rewa  Mouth,  the  ka- 
bouri  flies  begin  to  be  troublesome,  and  a  supply  of  citronella 
oil,  for  anointing  the  exposed  parts  of  the  body,  will  be 
appreciated. 

A  portable  motor  can  be  used  over  two  stretches,  be- 
tween the  rapids,  on  the  Essequibo,  and,  unless  the  river  is 
very  low,  it  will  serve  from  the  Mouth  up  to  the  Landing. 
The  usual  means  of  propulsion  is  the  paddle.  Where  the 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  461 

water  is  shallow,  the  Indians  pole-stick,  or  punt :  this  assures 
better  progress  than  the  paddle.  From  the  depots  up  to 
Rewa,  and  sometimes,  up  to  Anai,  a  sail  may,  upon  occa- 
sions, be  used  with  great  advantage. 

Our  down  trip  from  the  Mission  occupied  exactly  four- 
teen days.  When  the  river  is  in  flood,  this  trip  may  be  ac- 
complished in  nine  days.  The  best  time  for  either  journey, 
up  or  down,  is  just  after  the  heavy  rains — August  and  early 
September. 

General  Health:  Good  health  may  be  maintained  if 
three  grains  of  quinine  be  taken  regularly,  daily,  whether 
one  feels  ill  or  not.  When  a  feeling  of  lassitude  comes  on, 
double  the  dose.  Avoid  constipation  carefully.  The  water 
of  the  main  rivers  is,  generally,  harmless.  That  of  the  creeks 
and  of  the  ponds  should  be  boiled  and  allowed  to  cool.  The 
new  arrival  should  not  expose  himself  to  the  heat  of  the  sun 
between  the  hours  of  eleven  and  two.  After  six  months,  the 
ordinary  person,  who  eschews  liquor,  may  move  about,  at 
any  hour  of  the  day,  with  impunity.  In  fact,  he  may  roam 
the  open  savannahs  from  six  A.  M.  to  six  P.  M.,  without 
taking  harm.  Should  dysentery  attack,  while  on  the  river, 
the  bark  of  the  taparauu,  resembling  the  bark  of  a  guava, 
may  be  boiled,  and  drunk.  If  upon  the  savannahs,  it  is  well 
to  know  that  the  inner  bark  of  the  sand-paper  tree,  which 
is  common  everywhere,  treated  in  a  similar  way,  is  an  almost 
instantaneous  cure  for  the  dread  disease.  The  Indians  know 
over  a  dozen  emetics.  I  would  strongly  recommend  every- 
one to  carry  the  pocket  lancet,  in  a  case,  with  a  ready  supply 
of  permanganate  potassium,  at  the  opposite  end,  which  may 
be  bought  for  eightpence,  or  a  shilling. 


MAMMALS 


My  task  is,  to  afford  something  in  the  nature  of  a 
dhoby's  list :  not  to  pretend  to  a  scientific  description  of  the 
wild  life  of  the  district.  Some  little  service  may  be  rendered 
by  mentioning  the  localities,  thus  affording  some  idea  of 


462         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

geographical  distribution;  but  it  must  not  be  taken  that  the 
localities  mentioned  are  the  limits  of  such  distribution  in  the 
district. 

In  the  giant  forest,  about  the  upper  Thewarikuru  and 
over  the  Kwaye  to  the  Kanukus,  there  would  appear  to  be 
animals  not  yet  listed,  if  the  Indians'  reports  are  reliable. 
The  accounts  were  given,  in  good  faith,  by  old  and  tried 
yakamanna  thamu  (hunters) .  They  assert  that  seven  large, 
carnivorous  animals,  are  to  be  found  in  this  forest.  Here 
are  the  names,  with  a  rough  description. 

Emennu — Very  large,  black.  (Probably  the  black 
jaguar.) 

Wathamaiku — Large,  dark,  with  light  markings. 

Chirirume — Blackish  with  ruddy  stripes  and  spots. 

Anuntume — Very  large,  ruddy,    (puma). 

Prauya — Blackish,  white  on  fore-shoulders.  Called  the 
white  tiger. 

Wairarima — Dark,  takes  to  the  water. 

Kaikuchi — Large,  light  color  with  black  markings. 
(Spotted  jaguar.) 

Kaikuchi  sometimes  took  one  of  our  heifers,  or  a  young 
bull.  Once,  this  jaguar  came  to  within  a  hundred  feet  of  our 
house,  on  the  outskirts  of  the  village,  and  killed  a  heifer. 
We  heard  a  cry,  and  saw  a  stampede  of  calves,  at  night,  and, 
on  the  following  morning,  vultures  circling  overhead,  or 
perched,  as  sentinels,  upon  the  low  trees,  told  that  there  had 
been  a  kill.  In  this  instance,  as  in  others,  the  prey  had  been 
thrown  on  to  its  right  side,  and  dragged  to  a  depression, 
under  a  bush.  The  drag  was  about  thirty  yards.  A  hollow 
helps  to  hide  from  view,  and  a  bush,  or  tree,  affords  a  ready 
means  of  taking  top-dog  position,  should  necessity  arise. 
Close  scrutiny  failed  to  trace  any  wound  other  than  the  large 
opening,  over  and  behind  the  left  shoulder,  where  the  flesh 
had  been  torn  off,  exposing  two  ribs.  It  was,  probably,  the 
jaguar  which  had  taken  out  the  heart.  Kaikuchi  does  not, 
as  I  have  proved,  return  to  its  kill.  It  would  find  scarcely 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  463 

anything  of  a  meal  left,  if  it  did,  for  Nature's  sanitary  party 
is  early  at  work.  The  maikang  arrives  even  before  daylight, 
and  the  vultures  and  krakras  are  busy,  with  the  break  of  day. 
Kaikuchi  is  to  be  found  in  the  Thewarikuru  Bush,  Mare- 
kupu  Bush,  and  Marakanata  Bush.  I  have  the  skin  of  one 
which  was  shot  close  to  the  last-named  Bush.  It  is  that  of 
a  young  animal,  measuring  three  feet  ten  inches  from  the 
nose  to  the  root  of  the  tail.  The  markings  resemble,  some- 
what, the  beast's  own  pugs.  The  spotted  jaguar  would  seem 
to  prefer  the  open  country,  where  it  can  hunt  deer,  and,  in 
these  days,  cattle.  Both  the  spotted  and  the  black  jaguar  are 
known  not  to  despise  fish ;  and  it  is  said  that  they  will  lie  in 
wait  for  turtles  coming  on  to  sand-banks,  to  lay  eggs,  and 
successfully  turn  them,  and  extract  the  flesh. 

The  ocelot  may  be  found  in  these  woods,  also.  It  and 
kaikuchi  are  reported  as  abounding  in  the  Simuni  Bush. 

There  is  another  carnivorous  animal,  called  iworo,  which 
is  diurnal  as  well  as  nocturnal,  in  habits.  One  came  to  the 
corral,  at  mid-day.  It  decamped  when  an  Indian  ran  off  for 
a  gun.  This  animal  has  always  evaded  me,  so  that  I  am  un- 
able to  describe  it,  or  to  identify  it.  Christopher  Davis  calls 
it  a  wolf,  though  it  is  solitary.  One  moonlight  night,  we  saw 
an  iworo  cross  the  wide  road  which  we  had  made  and  cleared, 
and  go  to  the  pineapple  corral,  where,  finding  no  fruit,  it 
uttered  its  uncanny  cry.  Then  it  recrossed  the  road,  went 
off  to  another  pine  enclosure,  repeating  its  cry,  as  if  to  mark 
its  disgust.  This  creature,  although  carnivorous  (it  carried 
off  a  sitting  turkey)  relishes  pineapples,  and  few  were  the 
fruit  we  got  from  our  two  corrals.  The  Indians'  fields,  upon 
the  savannahs,  suffer  from  its  depredations.  When  one  is 
alone,  upon  the  savannahs,  at  night,  the  cry  of  the  iworo  is 
blood-curdling. 

Christopher  Davis  is  a  Negro,  who  has  lived  upon  the 
savannahs  for  a  score  of  years.  He  has  married  an  Indian 
woman,  and  keeps  cattle,  at  Tuka.  He  possesses  a  fund  of 
information  with  regard  to  the  forests  and  savannahs  and  the 


464         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

Indians ;  but  he  has  declined  several  offers  of  money  for  the 
folk-lore  he  can  give.  He  is  there  to  teach  the  Indians  to 
be  Christians;  not  to  waste  his  time  in  telling  devil-stories. 
He  would  be  useful  to  a  naturalist,  for  he  has  no  objection 
to  discoursing  about  God's  creatures. 

A  smaller  animal  than  the  iworo,  also  diurnal  and  noc- 
turnal, is  the  maikang,  or  savannah  fox.  A  specimen  brought 
to  me  measured  2  feet  from  the  nose  to  the  root  of  the  tail, 
the  tail  was  1  foot  long,  rather  bushy,  and  the  animal's  height 
was  17  inches.  A  black  line  ran  down  the  back,  from  the 
neck  to  the  root  of  the  tail,  and  along  the  tail,  irregularly. 
The  body  was  speckled  burnt-sienna  and  greyish- cream,  the 
head  being  similarly  colored,  and  the  underparts  were  dirty 
white.  The  nose  was  very  pointed.  The  maikang  is  auda- 
cious, coming  into  the  village,  in  the  daytime,  in  search  of 
fowls.  It  took  a  sitting  hen  from  under  our  house,  having 
to  force  its  way  through  a  kissing-gate  in  the  stockade,  which 
enclosed  the  house.  It  was,  probably  the  same  maikang 
which  was  found,  soon  after,  as  the  day  broke,  in  our  veran- 
dah, where  it  had  come  to  enjoy  some  bananas.  The  fruit 
had  been  brought  in  from  the  distant  field  the  night  before 
and  had  been  left  upon  the  floor,  to  be  hung  the  next  day. 
It  is  of  interest  to  find  two  carnivorous  animals  partial  to 
fruit.  There  is,  upon  the  savannahs,  a  bush,  which  bears  a 
pretty,  red  berry,  which  is  called  maikang-pimi-u,  because 
the  maikang  feeds  upon  it.  Pimi  is  the  Makuchi  name  for 
the  small,  red  pepper.  lu  means  food.  Maikang-pepper- 
food.  During  flood-time,  the  maikang  were  much  in  evi- 
dence upon  the  hill,  where  the  Mission  stands.  Its  eerie  cry, 
like  the  long  drawn-out  wail  of  a  person  in  agony,  could 
often  be  heard,  as  darkness  fell.  The  maikang  makes  a  hole, 
generally  in  a  mona,  and,  in  this,  it  has  its  young. 

A  still  smaller  animal,  having  a  long  tail  and  a  pointed 
snout,  is  the  queer  creature  called,  by  the  Indians,  kuachi. 
It  is  the  coati,  to  which  Colonel  Roosevelt  referred,  in  his 
account  to  Scribner's  of  his  travels  in  Brazil.  The  Indian 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  465 

boys  delight  to  tie  strings  to  the  waist  and  to  race  the  kuachis 
against  each  other.  These  animals  are  to  be  found  on  the 
low  ground,  to  the  west  of  the  Mission,  about  Kwatata 
Creek. 

The  accouri,  adouri  and  labba,  are  to  be  found  wherever 
there  is  an  extent  of  Bush.  I  have  seen  them  in  Uruata 
Forest,  and  they  have  been  shot  in  Thewarikuru  Bush.  The 
holes  of  the  accouri  may  often  be  seen — perchance  a  camudi 
has  taken  possession  of  the  hole,  and  the  accouri  family  is 
lodging  within  the  camudi ! 

Uruata  Forest  is  the  home  of  the  armadillo  and  the  por- 
cupine and  the  sloth.  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  an  armadillo 
and  was  given  some  spines  of  the  porcupine.  In  this  big 
forest,  droves  of  peccary  trample,  making  a  varied  diet  of 
yellow  hog-plums,  which  may  be  found  scattered  over  the 
ground,  in  places,  during  the  season,  and  of  snakes  which 
come  in  their  way.  The  Indians  name  five  distinct  kinds 
of  peccary,  although  only  two  appear  to  be  known  to  science. 
The  Indian  names  are : 

Abuya  (Abouyah  Dicotyles  tajacu). 

Poingga  (Kairuni  Dicotyles  peccari). 

Paraka. 

Karuata. 

Iwawtaw. 

Allusion  is  made  to  the  karuata  in  the  opening  stanza 
of  a  song  which  accompanies  the  Parishara  Dance : 

"Karuata  wai  ke  U  yipu  i  e."  (With  the  call  of  the 
karuata,  I  come.) 

I  have  not  made  records  of  the  localities  in  which  the 
different  species  may  be  found;  but  I  know  that  poingga 
have  been  shot  while  skirting  the  Anai  Savannah;  paraka 
have  been  brought  in  by  Indians  from  Mare-kupu  Bush; 
and  abuya  have  been  shot  in  Uruata  Forest.  The  Karuata, 
I  am  told,  is  found  in  the  forests  which  clothe  the 
Pakaraimas. 


466         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

Deer  are  reported  to  be  diminishing  rapidly,  in  the  sa- 
vannahs, since  the  Indians  have  taken  to  the  buck-gun.  The 
deer  are  most  plentiful  about  the  Napi  and  upon  the  Katoka 
Savannah.  Here,  again,  the  Indians  differentiate  four  spe- 
cies of  deer: 

Walking  (Odocoileus  virginianus) . 

A  smaller  Savannah  deer  (Mazama  americana). 

Usari  ( Wirriboceri )  —  ( Mazama  simplicicornis ) ,  a  bush 
deer,  such  as  we  used  to  shoot  in  the  Upper  Massaruni 
Forest. 

Karithauku — Also  a  bush  deer,  darker  in  color,  with 
white  front,  smaller  than  the  Usari,  which,  by  the  way,  has 
white  spots  about  under  parts. 

The  bush  deer  are  to  be  found  in  Uruata  Forest.  Xot 
much  was  seen  of  opossums,  for  they  keep  to  the  trees,  hid- 
ing amongst  the  foliage  and  in  their  holes.  A  small  variety 
was  discovered  in  a  tool-box,  under  our  house,  at  the  Mission. 
It  was  about  six  inches  long,  and  its  tail  was  as  long  as  its 
body.  Its  large,  black  eyes  seemed  to  be  out  of  proportion 
to  its  narrow  head,  and  its  dark-brown  ears  protruded  promi- 
nently. The  creature  snarled  and  snapped  and  showed  a 
lot  of  h'ght.  Mr.  Rodway  identifies  this  animal  as  Didelphys 
murinus.  Mouse-lila. 

A  yawarri,  also  a  pouched  animal,  was  shot  by  me,  in 
the  same  store-room.  It  showed  its  teeth  and  uttered  its 
gurgling  growl  in  a  terrifying  manner.  This  creature  is 
partial  to  fowls'  eggs,  and  will  play  havoc  with  young 
chickens. 

Monkeys  are  common  in  all  the  bush.  The  kwata 
(quattor — Aides  paniscus)  has  given  its  name  to  Kwata-ta, 
which  means  Kwata-place  (ta  being  an  abbreviation  of  pata, 
place),  and  to  the  knob  of  land,  Kwata-pubai,  or  Kwata- 
head.  I  have  seen  a  party  of  a  dozen  of  these  animals,  mak- 
ing their  way  from  one  big  bush  to  another,  using,  as  their 
highway,  the  low  scrub,  which,  at  that  place,  fringes  the  sa- 
vannah, at  the  river's  edge.  They  would  not  cross  a  long 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  467 

extent  of  country  upon  the  ground.  The  red  howler  affords 
the  listener  daily  and  nightly  entertainments,  in  these  forests. 
To  describe  the  noises  made  is  impossible.  The  cadence  from 
fortissimo  to  mezzo-forte  is  not  unpleasing.  One  would  miss 
these  howlers,  in  the  wilds.  Mycetes  seniculns  conveys  no 
picture  of  the  howler.  The  Sakiwinkie,  with  its  olive  and 
yellowish  tints  about  the  head,  makes  a  pretty  pet.  And  the 
black  and  fluffy  marmosette  is  also  in  demand.  I  have  seen 
both  of  these  monkeys  leaping  and  scrambling  amongst  the 
trees,  at  Uruata,  or  swarming  up  the  trunks.  As  the  Indi- 
ans eat  seven  species  of  monkey,  it  is  clear  that  I  have  not 
seen  all  there  are  to  be  seen. 

The  maipuri  or  tapir  is  a  splendid  diver.  It  travels  long 
distances  by  water.  I  have  seen  it  swimming  the  Essequibo, 
where  its  width  is  a  full  mile.  Two  boats  gave  chase. 
Wounded  with  an  arrow,  the  maipuri  dived  and  remained 
under  water  for  nearly  five  minutes.  For  three-quarters  of 
an  hour  it  kept  the  boats  moving  about  and  doubling,  as  it 
would  sink  in  one  place  and  re-appear  forty  or  fifty  yards 
away.  I  have  met  with  it  upon  several  occasions  in  the  Rapo- 
nunni.  Its  feet  are  worth  notice. 

Below  Anai,  I  shot  a  water-horse.  It  sank  and  was 
carried  below  the  branches  of  a  fallen  tree,  and  was  lost  to  us. 

The  water-dog,  or  otter,  has  learnt  to  fish  where  shal- 
lows meet  the  deeps.  These  animals  may  be  seen  treading 
water,  to  raise  their  heads  and  yap  at  an  approaching  boat, 
taking  care  to  keep  at  a  respectable  distance.  Should  one 
hear  an  uproar  of  conflicting  cries — turara,  turara,  turara, 
turara — there  is  no  need  for  alarm,  though,  through  the  for- 
est the  noise  is,  at  first,  startling.  A  family  of  otters  is 
expressing  its  delight  over  some  fine  fish  which  has  been 
brought  to  bank  by  father  or  mother  otter.  The  larger  spe- 
cies of  otter,  the  Indians  call  turara  (Pteronura  sandbachi)  ; 
the  smaller  one  they  call,  saro  (Lutra  brasiliensis) .  Both 
may  be  found  in  the  Rapo-nunni. 


468         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

Is  it  really  necessary  to  mention  that  rats  and  mice  exist 
in  the  Hinterland?  Though  they  annoyed  us  considerably 
in  the  house,  it  was  entertaining  to  watch  them  run  up  and 
down  a  post,  opposite  to  a  suspended  bunch  of  bananas,  and, 
finally,  leap  off,  a  distance  of  two  feet,  on  to  the  fruit. 

Bats,  also,  troubled  the  fruit,  until  we  made  a  wire  net 
fruit  room.  Vampires  and  other  bats  took  up  their  abode  in 
the  palm  thatch  of  our  house,  and  divided  their  attention 
between  the  bananas  and  the  litters  of  puppies,  which  peri- 
odically appeared.  The  bitches  kept  by  the  Indians  lose  near- 
ly all  their  pups,  owing  to  the  attacks  of  vampires.  The  moth- 
ers know  how  to  roll  over  and  to  brush  off  the  horrid  crea- 
ture; but  they  are  helpless  to  free  their  pups.  Our  pet  would 
run  backwards  and  forwards,  from  her  yelling  pups  to  our 
bed-room  door,  whining  for  us  to  come  and  remove  the  at- 
tacking horror.  Fowls  must  be  carefully  protected,  at  night, 
in  wire-net  houses.  Calves  suffered  severely.  They  became 
emaciated,  and  some  of  them  succumbed,  ere  they  could  grow 
to  be  large  enough  to  withstand  the  continual  lancing.  The 
Negroes  call  the  vampire  Dr.  Blair,  after  a  famous  surgeon- 
general,  who  was  much  given  to  employ  the  lance.  Upon 
the  occasion  of  my  trip  to  the  diamond  fields  of  the  Upper 
Massaruni,  in  1902,  I  was  attacked  by  a  vampire,  during 
sleep.  I  knew  nothing  of  it  until  the  morning,  when  my 
attention  was  called  to  a  large  patch  of  blood  upon  my  ham- 
mock. Examination  of  my  feet  showed  a  round  hole  about 
three-eighths  of  an  inch  in  diameter  and  one-eighth  deep,  in 
one  of  my  big  toes.  The  edge  was  regular.  I  felt  no  ill 
effects,  until  it  became  necessary  to  wade  creeks  and  lunge 
through  swamps  of  pegass,  when,  foreign  matter  getting  in, 
my  foot  was  poisoned.  Should  a  traveler  not  fear  mosqui- 
toes, he  should,  in  certain  districts,  have  a  net  to  his  ham- 
mock, as  security  against  bats.  Indians  wrap  themselves  up 
in  their  hammocks.  At  the  entrance  to  the  bush,  between 
the  Mission  House  and  the  River  Bank,  I  saw  about  a  dozen 
bats,  of  a  large  size,  for  a  few  weeks  only,  during  the  heavy 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  469 

rains  of  1915.  They  would  seem  to  measure  about  two  feet 
across  the  wings.  They  were  feeding,  not  upon  fruit,  but 
were  catching  insects.  These  large  creatures  reminded  one 
of  the  frugivorous  flying-foxes,  which  one  so  often  saw  in 
Burma. 

REPTILES 

The  Indians  gave  me  the  following  names  of  distinct 
species  of  turtle,  to  be  found  in  the  Rapo-nunni;  warara, 
matamata,  traekatha,  pitur'a.  Tortoises,  or  land-turtles,  of 
which  names  were  given  to  me,  are :  wathamuri,  kaika,  mur- 
ru,  kapachi  and  one  forgotten. 

The  warara,  which  measures  five  feet  in  length,  requires 
that  a  man  shall  be  skilled  and  strong  if  he  desire  to  turn 
it.  An  Indian  who  brought  in  one  of  this  size  suffered  a 
severe  scratching,  from  the  sharp  nails,  and  sustained  a  rup- 
ture. Between  January  and  April  turtles'  eggs  may  be 
found,  by  the  score,  in  exposed  sand-banks.  A  lay  may  be 
discovered  by  following  the  turtle's  track,  easily  distinguish- 
able from  a  boat,  and  scooping  the  sand  for  a  depth  of  eight 
inches.  Should  rain  have  obliterated  the  track,  eggs  may  be 
found  by  probing  where  a  suspicious  indentation  of  the  sand 
appears.  The  egg-shells,  being  of  parchment  texture,  are 
not  easily  broken.  A  smaller  turtle,  tarekatha,  may  some- 
times be  seen  by  the  fifty,  or  the  hundred,  together.  I  count- 
ed over  fifty  emerging  from  Parishara  Pond.  Their  necks 
were  craned,  to  enable  them  to  eye  the  passing  monster  (our 
boat),  and  their  whitish  throats  gave  the  appearance  of  a 
strew  of  lily-buds,  upon  the  placid  surface  of  the  water. 
Moonlight  nights  are  suitable  occasions  for  watching  turtles 
come  forth,  to  lay.  They  always  return  upon  the  same  track, 
leaving  only  one  mark  for  the  double  journey  from  and  to 
the  water.  They  are  able  to  manage  this,  because  they  ro- 
tate, when  digging  the  hole  for  the  eggs.  It  is  observable  that 
the  bodies  of  the  tortoises  are  not  so  flattened  as  those  of  the 
turtle.  Tortoises  may  be  found  in  the  Uruata  Forest.  I 


4-70         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

have  seen  specimens  brought  in  by  the  Indians;  but,  unfor- 
tunately, none  was  brought  after  I  began  to  make  sketches 
and  records,  so  that  varying  species  could  not  be  noted.  The 
markings  upon  the  shell  of  the  wathamuri  are  imitated  by 
the  Indians  as  a  pattern  in  Indian  bead-work.  It  is  effec- 
tively shown  in  a  bi-colored  design. 

The  Rapo-nunni  teems  with  alligators,  and  every  stream 
and  pond  of  any  size  knows  them.  Their  heads,  like  the 
ends  of  gnarled  logs,  may  be  seen,  stationary,  or  almost 
imperceptibly  moving,  in  mid-stream,  or  near  the  bank. 
Caiman  niger  mounts  guard  over  every  landing,  and  looks 
out  for  unwary  dogs,  thoughtless  children,  and  careless 
adults.  Two  children  have  been  carried  off  at  the  Mis- 
sion :  one  at  Rapo-nunni  Landing  and  the  other  at  Thewari- 
kuru  Landing.  One  of  these  was  the  child  of  the  late,  fa- 
mous Makuchi  Chief,  John  Bull,  who  came  to  Town  to  meet 
us  and  to  escort  us  to  the  distant  Mission.  A  woman,  also, 
was  dragged  under,  and  was  drowned,  ere  she  could  be  res- 
cued. Towards  the  end  of  1915,  one  of  our  women,  visiting 
Tawrong  thamu  pethaku  kupu,  in  search  of  young  birds, 
was  attacked.  A  large  part  of  one  calf  was  taken  off,  and 
an  ugly  wound  was  made  in  the  upper  leg.  The  flesh,  in 
parts,  rotted  and  had  to  be  cut  off.  With  careful  attention 
she  recovered,  and  she  was  able  to  walk  down  to  bid  us  fare- 
well, when  we  left.  These  few  instances,  out  of  many  others, 
go  to  show  that  the  alligator  or  the  crocodile  is  not  to  be 
treated  with  contempt. 

There  would  seem  to  be  more  than  one  species  in  the 
district.  We  saw  creatures  varying  from  three  to  twelve 
feet,  in  length.  Some  are  reported  to  be  longer.  They  seem 
to  prefer  back  waters  to  running  water.  The  Kwatata  bush, 
which  encloses  and  domes  the  creek,  making  it  necessary  to 
cut  a  way  for  one's  canoe,  is  a  favorite  breeding-place  for 
them.  Their  roaring  grunts  may  be  heard,  as  one  intrudes, 
from  amongst  the  big  roots.  Members  of  a  crew,  left  to 
sleep  in  a  boat,  at  the  landing,  were  unable  to  endure  the 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  471 

noise  and  the  proximity  of  the  alligators,  as  they  snouted 
the  sides  of  the  boat,  and  they  fled,  in  undisguised  alarm; 
though  it  is  doubtful  that  an  alligator  could,  or  would,  climb 
into  a  boat.  Indians  bathe  with  apparent  indifference;  the 
indifference  is  only  apparent.  The  eggs  of  the  alligator, 
thirty  or  forty  in  number,  are  thick,  rough,  dirty  white.  They 
are  buried  under  a  big  heap  of  earth  arid  leaves,  well  hidden 
in  the  bush,  away  from  water.  The  nest  might  be  mistaken 
for  an  ant-heap. 

That  foe  of  the  alligator,  the  iguana,  may  often  be  seen, 
upon  the  bank  of  the  river,  sunning  itself.  Sometimes  it  lies 
along  the  root,  or  trunk,  of  a  tree,  from  which  its  greenish 
skin  is  hardly  distinguishable. 

The  pokaru  is  a  good  place  for  studying  snakes.  We 
killed  two  camudies,  taken  from  the  Church.  One  measured 
fourteen  feet,  the  other  six.  Labarias  would  pay  an  occa- 
sional visit.  Rat  snakes  were  found  in  our  bath  room,  bed 
room  and  sitting  room.  A  small  snake,  about  two  feet  in 
length,  with  a  rufus  head  and  throat  was  twice  seen,  near 
to  the  house.  I  killed  both.  In  the  bush,  through  which  the 
new  water-side  line  passes,  we  saw  a  green  labaria;  and, 
crossing  a  side  road,  with  a  frog  in  its  mouth,  a  black  snake, 
about  four  feet  in  length,  passed  in  front  of  us.  The  green 
labaria  is  known  as  Lachesis  bilineatus.  Another  green 
snake,  the  Corallus  caninus,  or  parrot-snake,  lurks  in  the 
branches  of  trees,  waiting  for  unwary  birds.  The  grey- 
green  and  chrome  rattlesnake  is  common  upon  the  savannahs, 
although  the  ordinary  person  may  walk  for  miles  without 
seeing  one.  Between  the  Napi  and  the  Takutu,  it  is  abun- 
dant— there  I  saw  it — and,  upon  the  Tuka  Savannah,  one 
of  our  Indians  was  killed  by  the  bite  of  a  rattler.  This  snake 
is  known  to  be  viviparous.  It  is  said  to  bring  food  to  its 
young,  until  they  are  old  enough  to  hunt  for  themselves. 
The  traveler  must  beware  of  tussocks  of  grass,  at  the  side 
of  a  track.  I  have  heard  of,  but  have  never  seen,  snakes' 
eggs. 


472         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE  IN  BRITISH   GUIANA 
AMPHIBIANS 

Of  these  I  cannot  write.  That  frogs  and  tree-frogs  of 
many  sizes  and  voices  exist  all  over  the  country,  one  knows. 
I  did  not  meet  with  a  Surinam  Toad. 

BIRDS 

I  do  not  pretend  to  give  a  complete  list  of  all  the  birds 
we  saw.  For  over  a  year,  no  records  were  kept,  and  records 
of  a  scientific  nature  were  not  begun  until  just  prior  to  our 
departure.  There  was  no  time  for  comparisons:  so  I  am 
unable  to  list  separately  those  birds  which  are  not  to  be  found 
on  the  coast  lands.  Those  who  know  the  birds  of  the  coast 
may  be  interested  to  note  familiar  friends  which  are  to  be 
encountered  in  the  hinterland. 

It  may  be  well  to  begin  by  calling  attention  to  Tawrong 
thamu  pethaku  kupu  (The  Birds'  Landing  Pond),  where 
the  woman  was  attacked  by  the  alligator,  because  it  is  here 
that  a  remarkable  number  of  birds  of  different  varieties  as- 
semble to  breed.  Cranes,  egrets,  the  common  duckla  and 
the  collared  duckla,  ibises  and  storks  and  negro-cops,  and  a 
host  of  smaller  water  birds  are  amongst  those  that  breed 
here.  The  ducks  do  not  breed  at  this  pond. 

Mare-kupu  is  a  large  pond,  of  which  the  margins  are 
overgrown  with  long  grass  and  weeds,  making  wading  diffi- 
cult and  dangerous  (lurking  foes),  and  approach  by  boat 
troublesome.  This  pond,  the  Parishar  and  the  Warabai  are 
visited  by  three  varieties  of  ducks:  The  common  vicissi  (so 
called  from  its  cry — vicissi,  vicissi,  vicissi),  Dendrocygna 
discolor;  the  larger  bird,  the  Bahama  duck,  Poecilonetta  ba- 
hamensis;  and  the  magnificent  bird,  of  which  the  drake  is 
gloriously  colored,  Cairina  moschata.  Some  people  call  this 
the  Muscovy  or  king  duck.  There  is  a  fourth  duck,  occa- 
sionally brought  in  by  the  Indians,  the  white-faced  vicissi, 
Dendrocygna  viduata.  We  have  shot  both  varieties  of  vi- 
cissi, amongst  one  sweep,  or  regiment.  So  closely  packed 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  473 

are  these  birds,  when  going  through  their  aerial  evolutions, 
that  one  cartridge,  with  BB,  has  been  seen  to  bring  down 
fourteen  birds.  I  have  known  sixteen  to  be  brought  in  by  a 
yaggamana,  who  has  expended  only  one  of  three  cartridges 
he  had  taken  out  with  him.  The  Indian  name  for  the  large 
duck  is  maiwa,  they  call  the  vicissi  wawing,  while  the  teal  is 
known  as  ropong.  It  is  well  to  know  these  names,  when  one 
is  seeking  the  assistance  of  the  Indians  to  find  the  different 
species.  The  vicissi  and  the  king  duck,  as  I  shall  call  Cai- 
rina  moschata,  seem  to  be  commoner  than  the  Bahama  duck, 
for  we  seldom  saw,  or  secured  the  last-named.  The  king 
duck  can  always  be  detected,  in  flight,  by  the  broad  bars  of 
white  which  flash  from  its  wings.  The  Indians  stalk  these 
ducks  in  a  marvellous  way,  wading  through  water,  with  body 
bent  nearly  to  the  surface,  taking  cover  behind  bushes  or 
grasses,  with  the  gun  held  a  few  inches  from  the  water,  and 
brought,  with  a  sloth-like  movement  to  the  present,  when  at 
close  range.  The  Indian  is  a  wonderful  hunter,  but  he 
dislikes  taking  a  sporting  shot.  He  will  not  take  a  bird 
on  the  wing.  I  achieved  a  nine  days'  notoriety  by  taking 
a  monster  king  duck,  as  it  rose  from  the  river,  at  a  dis- 
tance of  just  over  forty  yards.  It  was  the  largest  speci- 
men I  saw,  not  magnified  by  lenses  of  the  Ego  brand! 
Where  the  river  passes  through  forest  belts,  as  at  Uruata, 
Simuni,  and  Rewa,  the  king  duck  may  be  found  in  some 
quiet  spot,  besporting  himself  with  his  wives  and  family,  of 
two,  or  perhaps,  three.  It  would  seem  that  ducks  lose  a  con- 
siderable number  of  their  young,  ere  they  reach  maturity. 
Their  foes  are  legion.  The  perai  and  the  tiger-fish  are  ever 
on  the  look-out  for  a  duckling,  and  even  for  a  full-grown 
bird.  The  alligator,  too,  makes  a  meal  of  them.  And  the 
cat  tribe  is  ready,  whensoever  they  are  ashore.  The  king 
duck  nests  in  the  hollows  of  trees ;  while  the  vicissi  makes  its 
nest  amongst  reeds  and  grasses. 

To  the  north  of  the  Mission,  upon  the  savannahs,  cranes, 
negro-cops,  ibises,  flamingoes  and  spurwings  may  be  ob- 


474         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

served.  Along  the  river  banks  egrets  are  often  to  be  seen. 
Storks,  also,  are  common,  making  a  pretty  picture  when  they 
settle  upon  the  top  of  an  overhanging  tree,  after  having  been 
disturbed  at  their  piscatorial  operations.  The  egret  might 
be  endowed  with  an  aesthetic  sense,  as  it  is  so  frequently  to 
be  seen  standing  at  the  water's  edge,  against  a  background 
of  deep  green  grasses,  its  white  form  reflected  in  the  glassy 
surface,  which  mirrors  also  the  deep  blue  of  the  sky  over- 
head, and  the  fleecy  clouds  drifting.  Companies  of  spur- 
wing  sweep  along,  and  pipers  run  about  the  sand-banks  at 
the  river's  brink.  Two  species  of  kingfisher  are  easily  dis- 
tinguishable, at  river,  or  pond,  for  one  is  large  and  the  other 
is  small.  Closer  observation  leads  to  the  discovery  that  there 
are  four  species,  including  a  collarless,  green  one.  Others 
have  white  collars,  rufus-brown  waistcoats  and  blue-green 
uppers,  wings  and  tails.  The  presence  of  a  kingfisher  may 
be  told,  not  only  by  its  darting  flight ;  but,  also,  by  its  pecu- 
liar note,  which  may  be  described  as  pebclacking  (pebble- 
clacking).  I  observed  kingfishers  flying  overland  at  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  water,  and  this  has  led  me  to  wonder 
if  we  have  a  species,  like  one  in  Burma,  which  has  forsaken 
fishing  for  hunting.  Flying  with  the  kingfishers  are  the 
woodpeckers,  or  carpenter-birds.  Some  handsome  birds  may 
be  seen  throughout  the  region.  A  large  bird,  with  a  crimson 
crest,  is  to  be  found  at  Uruata;  the  smaller  one,  with  a  red 
head,  is  common  about  the  Mission.  The  muscular  action 
of  the  woodpecker's  neck,  with  a  maxim-like  rapidity  of 
blows,  is  an  interesting  study;  and  the  bird's  undulating 
flight  can  hardly  escape  attention. 

From  the  thickets,  along  the  river  bank,  the  hubbub  oF 
gurgling  bevies  of  old-witches  may  be  heard.  The  larger 
old-witch  haunts  the  more  open  ground,  and  its  plaintive 
note  sounds  upon  the  savannah  levels,  where  there  are  bush- 
es, not  far  from  water. 

Large  hawks  are  to  be  seen  almost  anywhere  in  the 
savannahs,  perched,  sentinel-like,  upon  some  solitary  trunk, 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  475 

denuded  of  leaves  and  branches,  or  at  the  summit  of  the 
tallest  tree  at  the  edge  of  a  wood.  One  evening,  as  we 
were  returning  from  the  North  Savannah,  up  the  hill  to  the 
Mission,  we  heard  a  cicada,  as  it  traversed  our  direction,  high 
in  the  air.  Two  hawks  were  poised,  nearby,  examining  the 
woods,  on  either  side  of  the  trail.  One  of  them  swooped 
at  the  cicada  and  carried  it  off  in  its  talons,  protesting  loudly 
the  while.  Truly  the  great  do  not  despise  small  things!  A 
smaller  hawk-bird,  called  by  the  Indians,  enthaking,  hunted 
in  the  village,  ever  on  the  watch  for  the  beautiful  pets  kept  by 
the  Indians,  or  for  stray  chickens.  A  large  bird,  in  appear- 
ance like  a  hawk,  hunts  with  the  vultures.  It  has  a  white 
head  and  collar.  The  Indians  call  it  krakra.  It  does  not 
kill  its  food;  but  feeds  upon  grubs  and  worms  and  carrion. 
Probably,  it  seeks  carrion  in  the  rotted  meat.  About  the 
rocky  hills,  at  Tuka,  the  kite  is  to  be  admired.  It  nests  in 
bushes  amongst  the  rugged  boulders. 

At  the  Mission  I  shot  a  large  hawk,  with  feathers  barred 
black  and  white,  and  black  and  rufus-brown.  It  was  a  hand- 
some bird,  and  measured  exactly  four  feet  from  tip  to  tip  of 
wings. 

A  hill,  about  a  mile  to  the  northwest  of  the  Mission  is 
named  after  the  smaller  curassow,  which  is  said  to  have 
abounded  hereabouts,  though,  now,  it  is  seldom  to  be  seen. 
The  large  curassow  is  common  in  the  big  forests  of  Rewa 
and  Uruata.  Certain  thickets,  along  the  river,  are  its  favor- 
ite haunts,  and  it  was  noticed  that  when  a  bird  had  been  shot 
at  one  of  these  the  spot  was  occupied  by  a  successor,  not  long- 
afterwards.  The  booming  ugm,  ugm  ....  ugm,  ugm,  ugm, 
(twice,  then  thrice),  rouses  the  Indians  to  a  pitch  of  eager- 
ness, while  the  boat  is  yet  a  long  way  off.  Stalking  is  diffi- 
cult, as  it  is  almost  impossible  for  even  an  Indian  to  make 
way  through  a  thicket  of  underbrush  without  snapping  a 
single  twig.  At  the  first  sound  of  snapping,  the  booming 
ceases.  There  is  a  very  long  pause  before  it  is  resumed. 
Should  more  snaps  be  heard,  a  little  nearer,  those  who  are 


476         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

expectantly  waiting  in  the  boat,  hear  a  loud  beating  of  wings, 
as  the  alarmed  bird  bursts  through  the  foliage  and  makes 
way.  The  curassow  is  often  tamed.  Its  crest  of  black  feath- 
ers, its  glossy  black  back  and  wings,  its  immaculate  white 
waistcoat,  and  its  bright  gamboge  bill,  make  it  a  handsome 
pet.  Another  pet  is  the  maroudie,  or  bush  turkey,  with  its 
blood-red  wattles.  The  thakami,  or  trumpet  bird,  is  more 
than  a  pet ;  it  is  a  companion.  Its  antics  are  very  amusing, 
two  or  three,  together,  have  round  games,  leaping  over  each 
other  and  tossing  stones,  leaves,  and  twigs.  Its  brilliant 
dicky  of  cobalt  blue,  Prussian  blue,  and  ultramarine  (such 
a  blending  of  blues !) ,  is  well  set  off  by  its  grey  mantle,  falling 
over  wings  and  the  place  where  its  tail  ought  to  be,  being- 
edged  with  dull  yellow-ochre.  This  bird  fearlessly  attacks 
and  kills  snakes.  In  the  Upper  Massaruni,  I  have  seen  it 
ferret  out  a  yackman,  or  whip-snake,  and  attack  it.  When- 
ever we  killed,  at  the  Mission,  the  meat  and  blood  always 
caused  great  excitement  amongst  our  trumpeters. 

They  are  easy  to  keep,  for  they  are  omnivorous.  Maams 
and  maamus  are  to  be  found  in  the  big  forests,  where  the 
thakami  dwell,  and  in  the  smaller  woods,  where  the  trum- 
peter disdains  to  live.  The  hanaqua,  inquiring,  What 
o'clock?  What  o'clock?  at  dawn  and  close  of  day  is  ubiq- 
uitous, and  abounds  upon  the  outskirts  of  savannahs  and 
clearings.  Toucans  of  several  kinds  are  common  in  the  big- 
ger woods.  Their  plumage  is  prized  by  the  Indians,  for 
decking  their  persons.  Three  macaws  may  be  seen — the 
wathara  (crimson  and  blue) ,  the  kuyari  (green  and  yellow), 
and  the  karawa  (red-breasted).  These  birds  frequent  the 
trees  which  provide  them  with  food.  At  the  Mission  there 
is  a  tree  called  kuyari  in,  the  (kuyari's  food  tree).  Three 
parakeets  are  caught  and  kept:  small  green,  paraki;  green, 
with  long  tail,  kaikai ;  orange,  red  about  the  eyes,  greenish- 
yellow  tail,  kuyese.  The  chiriki  is  the  love-bird,  also  a  para- 
keet, of  course.  Parrots  are  everywhere  swarming.  I  have 
not  listed  the  varieties.  Only  once  did  I  hear  a  tiger-bird. 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  477 

It  was  at  Uurata  where,  also,  I  heard  the  white  bell-bird 
for  the  first  and  the  only  time.  Hummingbirds  are  plen- 
tiful; their  delicate  nests  were  often  seen.  In  the  thickets 
and  tangles,  to  the  south  of  Kwatata  creek,  the  jacamar 
(Galbula  viridis),  breeds.  As  it  somewhat  resembles  a 
hummingbird,  though  it  is  much  larger,  the  Indians  call 
it  Tuku-i  yung,  or  hummingbird's  father;  just  as  they  call 
the  thumb,  thantha  yung,  the  finger's  father.  This  bird 
must  not  be  confused  with  the  long-toed  jacana,  which  may 
occasionally  be  seen,  standing  upon  the  immense  pads  of 
the  Victoria  Regia,  one  of  the  original  homes  of  which  is  the 
Thewarikuru,  in  its  lake-like  expanses,  at  the  southern  foot 
of  the  Mission  Hill,  from  the  summit  of  which  hill  this  water- 
way is  so  effectually  screened  by  the  thick  bush.  The  Indians 
name  their  Reception  dance  after  the  hummingbird,  Tuku-i ; 
and  their  Cxreat  dance,  the  Parishara,  is  called  after  the  prim 
crimson-headed  finch,  which  is  to  be  seen,  flitting  from  bush 
to  bush,  along  the  banks  of  the  Rapo-nunni,  almost  anywhere 
in  its  course. 

As  I  have  returned  to  a  mention  of  the  river,  we  may  as 
well  take  note  of  the  duckla.  Some  call  this  the  snake-bird, 
a  nickname  which  should  belong  to  the  trumpeter,  as  I  have 
shown.  Singly,  in  twos,  or  in  threes,  it  may  be  seen,  perched 
upon  some  tacouba,  or  an  overhanging  branch,  looking  for 
fish.  When  disturbed,  it  has  the  peculiar  habit  of  dropping 
low  and  dragging  its  tail  in  the  water,  as  if  wounded;  then 
it  rises  and  makes  off.  The  duckla  with  the  white  collar  is 
rare.  The  Indian  name  is  saia.  Of  great  beauty  is  the  sun- 
bittern  (Eurypyga  helias),  also  fairly  common  upon  this 
river.  I  have  not  seen  more  than  one  at  a  time.  The  bird 
makes  a  beautiful  display  of  the  coloring  and  marking  of  its 
tail  and  wings,  when  it  alights,  spreading  the  tail  and  wings 
so  as  to  form  a  fan.  The  shades  of  browns,  golds,  and  greys, 
are  wonderful.  It  frequents  the  sunny  banks,  and,  gener- 
ally, alights  upon  an  open  patch,  when  the  sun  is  shining. 
Then  it  runs  and  secretes  itself  where  the  bushes  are  thick. 


478         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

On  the  banks  of  the  Rapo-mmni,  in  the  Rewa  forest,  I  have 
heard  the  piercing  call  of  the  pi-pi-yo,  or  gold  bird,  alias 
greenheart-bird.  It  is  supposed  to  be  found  only  in  green- 
heart  forest.  Mr.  C.  Wilgress  Anderson,  F.R.Cx.S.,  For- 
estry Officer,  tells  me  that  no  greenheart  is  to  be  found  in 
the  Rapo-nunni  district.  Indians  say  some  exist  in  the 
Rewa  forest. 

Tyrants,  of  the  kiskadee  family,  need  no  special  men- 
tion, nor  do  cotton  birds,  manakins,  tanagers,  and  cotingas 
— after  which  the  Cotinga  River,  ceded  to  Brazil,  is  named. 
Perhaps  an  exception  should  be  made  in  the  case  of  the 
scarlet-breasted  tanager,  (Pithy s  erythromelas),  two  speci- 
mens of  which  were  noticed  in  a  cashew  tree,  near  to  our 
house  at  the  Mission.  In  that  tree  I  saw,  upon  another  oc- 
casion, a  dark  bird  with  a  crimson  collar  and  a  crimson  under- 
tail,  which  Mr.  Rod  way  suggests  may  have  been  Lathria 
streptophora,  a  cotinga,  which,  he  says,  is  not  mounted  in  the 
Georgetown  Museum.  The  so-called  American  robin  may 
be  seen  upon  the  savannahs,  at  Tuka.  And  from  the  hills, 
beyond,  the  Indians  bring  that  gorgeous  plumed  and  sweet 
songster,  the  troupial.  We  bought  several  and  let  them 
loose,  after  a  short  spell  in  the  cage.  They  would  fly  about 
the  village  and  come  in  at  meal-times  and  feed  from  the 
hand.  Early  in  the  morning  they  would  appear  aft  our  win- 
dow and  carol  forth,  then  search  the  house  for  insects. 
When  full-grown,  the  male  assumes  an  almost  crimson  hue, 
so  different  from  the  yellow  of  his  youth.  The  head  becomes 
a  deep  black,  matching  the  wings  and  the  well-shaped  tail. 
The  wings  have  bars  of  white.  These  birds  attracted  a  pair 
of  yellow  birds,  with  brown  wings,  barred  with  white.  They 
would  join  our  pets  upon  the  verandah  and  feed  and  bathe 
with  them.  The  Indians  call  them  chiwitaw,  they  may  be  the 
yellow-crested  troupial,  Icterus  croconotus.  The  black- 
crested,  the  far  handsomer  bird,  is  called  Icterus  vulgaris. 
Farther  westward  along  the  Pakaraimas  the  brilliant  cock- 
of-the-rock  has  its  habitat.  I  have  seen  the  skins  of  two, 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  479 

which  were  used  by  the  Indians  as  ornaments  of  clothing. 
Upon  one  occasion,  we  heard  a  troupial  singing  loudly  from 
the  top  of  a  tree,  on  the  river  bank,  near  to  Kwimata  Land- 
ing. Its  nest  was  discovered,  high  up  in  a  bush,  overhanging 
the  water,  upon  the  opposite  bank.  It  was  a  grassy  struc- 
ture, elongated,  fixed  in  a  fork,  with  an  entrance  on  the  lee- 
ward side.  I  suspect  that  this  bird  and  its  mate  had  escaped 
from  Indians  at  Kwimata. 

Where  river  banks  are  steep,  sand-martins  may  be  found 
making  use  of  the  numerous  holes.  Whether  for  roosting 
or  nesting,  I  have  not  determined.  Over  the  savannahs, 
common  martins,  swifts  of  two  sizes,  and  swallows  cannot  be 
overlooked.  Scissor-tails,  also,  are,  plentiful ;  and  an  occa- 
sional screech  owl  may  be  disturbed  from  amongst  the  thick 
foliage  of  an  ancient  tree.  Pigeons  are  plentiful.  There  is 
a  tree  in  which  they  delight  to  place  their  platforms ;  on  this 
account  the  Indians  call  it  wakokwa-the,  or  pigeon's-tree. 
Its  leaves  are  long  and  narrow,  and  its  trunk  is  as  straight 
as  a  mast.  The  copper-colored  pigeon,  also,  is  plentiful; 
and  the  ground  doves  rise  in  patches,  from  any  open  ground. 
I  disturbed  a  ground  dove  upon  its  nest,  near  a  tussock  of 
grass,  upon  the  Tnka  Savannah,  near  the  foot  of  a  hill. 
There  was  one  white  egg.  A  night- j  ar,  mothering  a  solitary 
young,  was  found,  upon  the  hill,  on  the  outskirts  of  the  Mis- 
sion Village.  Upon  moonlight  nights,  night- jars  were  busy. 
They  settled  on  the  ground,  at  the  side  of  the  roads,  wheez- 
ing and  beating  their  wings,  periodically.  Then  they  would 
rise  and  gyrate,  and  sweep  along,  just  over  the  grass,  and 
beat  their  wings  as  they  passed.  The  object  of  this  may  be, 
to  cause  their  prey  to  betray  its  presence,  by  a  sudden  move- 
ment. At  sunset,  during  the  later  months  of  the  year,  we 
used  to  bear  a  bird  which  uttered  seven  notes,  descending 
the  scale  in  thirds.  It  was  not  seen,  nor  identified.  This  was 
at  the  Mission.  From  my  little  shelter  in  the  Bush,  near  the 
Mission,  I  have  watched  the  black-faced  wren  come  forth 
from  hiding  and  warble  its  powerful  song.  The  bird's  tech- 


480         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

nical  name  is  Thryothorus  coraya.  The  common  wren 
haunts  the  tangles  upon  the  savannahs,  as  well  as  the  big 
forest.  It  is  a  homely  bird.  The  quadrille  bird,  perhaps  the 
finest  songster  in  the  world,  may  be  heard  in  Uruata  Forest. 
My  first  meeting  with  this  bird  was  in  the  Upper  Massa- 
runi.  Its  voice-production  is  a  perfect  art;  I  know  of  no 
bird  with  a  sweeter  note,  not  even  the  nightingale,  nor  the 
black-cap  of  Europe.  When  one  has  heard  this  bird,  the 
other  two  wrens  mentioned,  the  local  thrush,  the  troupial, 
and  the  kadouri — to  mention  some  only  of  our  sweet  song- 
sters— one  no  longer  believes  the  traveler's  yarn  that  the 
tropical  countries  have  birds  of  bright  plumage  but  no 
birds  of  song. 

I  do  not  class  the  bunyahs  as  songsters ;  but  I  must  not 
forget  to  mention  that  colonies  of  them  may  be  found  upon 
the  river  banks,  their  nests  being  suspended  from  trees  over- 
hanging the  water. 

This  haphazard  catalogue  will  afford  some  idea  of  the 
birds  to  be  found  in  the  district.  Travellers  may  walk  miles 
over  the  savannahs  and  through  the  forests  and  report  that 
few  are  the  birds  to  be  seen  and  heard — noisy  parrots,  ma- 
caws and  kiskadees,  vultures,  doves  and  pigeons.  If  they 
walk  they  will  see  little  more.  Those  who  desire  to  see  and 
to  hear,  must  learn  to  stand  or  to  sit  still.  Half  an  hour's 
patience-exercise  will  be  amply  repaid :  it  is  astonishing  how 
many  forms  of  wild  life  reveal  themselves  to  the  silent 
watcher.  They  seem  to  spring  to  life  as  by  the  magic  of  a 
fairy's  wand.  Creatures  which  are  preyed  upon  learn  that 
their  safety  consists  in  sitting  still,  when  danger  threatens. 
This  instinct,  exercised  in  the  very  face  of  an  enemy,  causes 
that  inaction  which  some  would  attribute  to  hypnotism.  Any 
boxer  knows  that  he  must  watch  his  opponent's  eyes,  so  as 
to  be  able  to  tell  when  and  where  his  next  blow  will  fall. 
There  is  no  need  for  fancy  theories  with  regard  to  birds  and 
beasts  and  reptiles. 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  481 

FISH  AND  CRUSTACEANS 

I  have  seen  two  of  the  three  kinds  of  crabs,  named  to 
me  by  the  Indians,  as  being  found  here.  They  tell  of  two 
shrimps,  and  of  forty-eight  different  fishes.  Fish  migrate 
from  the  Essequibo  to  the  Upper  Rapo-nunni,  to  spawn. 

The  lukanani  is  said  to  carry  its  eggs  in  its  mouth,  and 
the  female  to  transfer  them  to  the  male,  when  she  desires 
to  feed.  The  warapaima  makes  a  bed  at  the  bottom  of  a 
deep  hole.  This  fish  grows  to  an  immense  size,  sometimes 
scaling  over  a  hundred- weight.  It  may  be  seen  rolling  its 
back  at  the  surface  of  the  water ;  and  the  noise  of  its  splash, 
when  it  returns  from  a  high  leap  into  the  air,  may  be  heard 
half  a  mile  off,  upon  a  still  night.  The  Indians  do  not  like 
the  flesh.  I  have  seen  them  catch  one  and  leave  it  untouched, 
although  we  have,  at  the  time,  been  without  any  other  flesh 
for  our  evening  meal.  Owing  to  carelessness  on  the  part  of 
those  who  have  taken  Indian  names  before  they  have  learnt 
the  language,  this  fish  has  come  to  be  called  the  arapaima — 
Arapcdma  gigans  is  the  name  in  full.  When  the  freshets  come 
down,  the  striped  tiger-fish  may  be  detected  waling  the  sur- 
face, as  it  dashes  up  the  shallows.  (Pseudoplatystoma  fas- 
datum)  .  A  common  fish  is  the  arawona,  which  has  an  almost 
vertical  mouth  opening  at  the  top.  It  feeds  upon  the  hard, 
green  fruit,  of  a  tree,  which  is  plentiful  near  the  water.  The 
Indians  place  some  of  the  fruit  in  baskets,  at  the  surface  of 
the  water,  and,  as  the  fish  rise  to  feed,  they  shoot  them  with 
bow  and  arrow.  I  have  seen  Indians  dash  in  amongst  ara- 
wona, drive  them  over  the  shallows,  towards  the  bank,  and 
pick  them  up  in  their  arms.  Perai  and  their  four  cousins 
abound,  some  marked  with  red  and  others  with  gold.  They 
are  ravenous  fish,  and  attack  any  wounded  thing  which  falls 
into  the  water.  They  will  attack  persons  swimming.  The 
electric-eel,  or  numb-fish  (Electrophorus  electricus),  I  have 
seen  swimming  near  the  bank,  at  the  Bell-rocks, 


482         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

Our  Indians  have  caught  two  species  of  the  sting-ray, 
in  the  Rapo-nunni.  The  brownish  one,  hardly  distinguish- 
able from  mud  and  sand,  near  Katoka  Creek ;  and  the  grey 
one  with  gold  and  silver  markings,  upon  a  granite  boulder, 
in  the  lower  river.  The  second  one  cannot  easily  be  detected 
when  lying  upon  granite,  with  the  sun's  rays  playing  through 
the  liquid  prism.  The  "stings"  are  barbs,  lying  one  above 
the  other,  upon  a  slender  tail.  They  turn  them  over  the  back, 
as  a  scorpion  does  its  tail.  Many  were  the  Indians  who  came 
to  me  for  a  dressing,  after  entering  the  water  to  find  a  pass- 
age for  the  boat,  or  to  push  it  over  a  shallow.  At  the  mouth 
of  Uruata  Creek,  I  saw  some  long,  narrow  fish,  not  quite  a 
foot  in  length.  The  Indian  name  for  them  is  mawri  kuratu, 
or  blow-pipe  fish.  Savannah  Indians  do  not  use  blow-pipes. 
Pata-kai  is  the  Makuchi  name  for  a  fish  which  scatters  over 
the  savannahs  and  into  the  creeks  and  ponds,  when  the  floods 
come  out.  The  name  means,  "The  country  over,"  pata  being 
place,  or  country,  while  kai  is  short  for  kaichure,  evenly, 
equally.  When  the  floods  subside,  many  of  these  fish  fail  to 
return  to  the  river  in  time,  and  they  may  be  found  in  pud- 
dles, which,  in  course  of  time,  evaporate.  In  the  dry  bed  of 
Uruata  Creek,  I  have  seen  a  small  shoal  of  them  flapping 
and  floundering  in  a  few  inches  of  water.  The  Indians 
picked  them  up  and  threaded  them  upon  a  stick,  against  their 
breakfast.  The  maikang-fish  has  dog-like  teeth ;  and  the  bar- 
bels of  the  little  thaki  are  imitated  in  a  design  for  the  Indian 
fan,  which  is  used  for  shaping  and  turning  the  cassava  cakes, 
sometimes  known  as  wooden-bread.  These  fish  are  most 
curious. 

The  Indians  tell  how,  in  ages  long  ago,  the  Inchkirang, 
one  of  their  ancient  Heroes,  plucked  leaves  from  the  moka- 
moka,  and  scattering  them  in  the  Rapo-nunni,  turned  them 
into  sting-rays,  in  order  to  prevent  his  younger  brother  from 
following  him  on  his  journey,  after  the  giant  snail,  to  the 
floor  of  the  mighty  ocean. 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  483 

ARACHNtDA  AND  MYRIOPODA 

Scorpions,  olive-green,  black,  and  ruddy-brown,  have 
been  found.  The  first  were  under  the  loosened  bark  of  a 
tacouba,  which  we  had  adopted  as  a  seat,  at  the  far  end  of  an 
afternoon  stroll.  Spiders  would  need  a  chapter  to  them- 
selves, for  they  include  the  giant,  hairy  terrors  (wrongly 
called  tarantulas),  the  ant-like  spider,  the  jumping  spider, 
and  the  spider  which  skilfully  hides  itself  behind  an  X,  spun 
in  the  middle  of  its  web.  Long  centipedes  are  everywhere. 
And  millipedes,  measuring  five  inches,  may  often  be  seen 
in  the  bush. 

INSECTS 

It  was  at  Thewarikuru  Landing  that  I  saw  and  heard 
the  musical  butterflies  (Ageronia  feronia) .  Their  music  re- 
sembles the  crackling  of  grass  under  fire.  The  insects  were 
mottled  in  shades  which  appeared  to  be  drabs,  greys  and 
browns.  They  should  measure  about  three  inches  across  the 
wings. 

We  saw  more  varieties  of  butterflies  in  the  bush  than 
upon  the  savannahs.  Wherever  a  road,  or  a  sirahi,  is  cleared, 
through  bush,  there  numerous  butterflies  are  to  be  seen — 
some  at  any  time  of  the  day;  others  only  at  morn  and  eve. 
The  large,  black  butterfly,  whose  wings  are  panelled  in  bright 
gamboge,  we  saw  only  when  the  rays  of  the  sun  came  slant- 
ing through  the  leafy  canopy  overhead,  making  patches  and 
bars  of  light  and  shade,  as  they  filtered  through.  In  such 
places  the  butterfly  might,  when  still,  escape  detection.  This 
species  allowed  me  to  stroke  it ;  and  our  baby  boy  could  put 
his  finger  to  within  an  inch  of  it,  without  disturbing  it.  We 
did  not  allow  him  to  touch  it,  as  he  would  have  poked.  A 
butterfly  similar  in  size,  panelled  with  deep  green,  was  no- 
ticed, also.  And  a  smaller,  black  butterfly,  with  crimson. 
This  was  always  seen  hovering  about  a  special  kind  of  sap- 
ling, or  suspended  from  its  leaves  or  leafless  twigs.  We 


484         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

never  saw  it  in  repose,  upon  a  leaf,  or  branch.  Another  but- 
terfly always  alighted  upon  the  trunk  of  a  particular  kind 
of  tree,  from  the  bark  of  which  it  was  hardly  distinguishable. 
Indians  would  not  detect  it,  until  I  pointed  it  out  to  them. 
This  fact,  with  some  others  of  like  nature,  suggest  that  the 
Indians  are  quick  to  see  things  which  interest  and  concern 
them — as  one  woman  will  take  in  the  details  of  another  wo- 
man's attire,  at  a  glance — and  that  they  are  not  keenly  ob- 
servant in  other  respects. 

When  crossing  the  savannahs,  between  the  Napi  and 
the  Manari,  upon  two  occasions,  I  disturbed  a  tiny  butterfly, 
settled  upon  the  kanju  flower,  of  which  it  was  the  same  color. 
The  wings  were  the  size  of  the  petals  of  the  flower,  which  is 
a  blue  mauve,  almost  lavender.  The  kanju  is  an  herbaceous 
growth  planted  by  the  Indian  maidens,  who  rub  the  juice 
of  the  flowers  upon  their  faces,  to  make  themselves  attractive 
to  the  Indian  youths.  A  popular  name  for  this  butterfly 
might  be,  The  Kanju. 

Moths,  beetles,  stick-insects,  leaf-insects  and  grasshop- 
pers, I  shall  not  attempt  to  list.  A  few  locusts  were  to  be 
seen,  occasionally,  upon  the  savannahs,  to  the  West  of  the 
Mission,  flying  at  an  altitude  of  about  forty  feet.  Some 
alighted  close  to  us,  thus  enabling  us  to  examine  them. 

The  six-o'clock  bee  may  be  heard,  and  there  is  another 
cicada  which  rasps  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  Its  shrrr-shrrr 
is  given  forth  from  a  slit  in  the  thorax  in  quick  two-time. 
The  Indians  reproduce  the  noise  by  means  of  certain  seed- 
cases  strung  and  affixed  to  a  stick,  which  they  shake.  It  is 
an  accompaniment  to  the  tuku-i  dance.  In  the  hills,  aback 
of  Tuka,  during  October,  I  have  heard  the  drone-bee,  the 
call  of  which  might  lead  a  stranger  to  think  that  a  miniature 
engine  was  running  amongst  the  hills. 

One  day,  when  breakfasting  at  Mare-kupu,  I  noticed  a 
bee-hive,  in  an  old  tree,  at  a  height  of  five  feet  six  inches 
from  the  ground.  I  have  seen  other  hives  as  low  as  this, 
which  had  been  cleaned  out  by  some  wild  animal.  The  large 


HINTERLAND  NOTES  485 

hole,  whence  the  branch  had  fallen,  was  built  up  with  mud, 
not  wax.  I  broke  away  the  alighting  platform,  in  order 
to  get  a  view  of  the  interior.  Upon  the  tree  were  several 
kushie  warrior  ants,  one  of  which,  observing  bees  settling 
upon  the  trunk  and  wandering  about  in  search  of  an  entrance, 
dashed  up  to  the  attack.  As  a  bee  settled,  the  ant  would 
rush  at  it;  a  nip  would  be  audible;  and  the  bee  would  fall 
to  the  ground.  Over  a  dozen  were  treated  in  this  way.  When 
a  bee  hovered,  the  ant  followed  its  movements,  and  this  gave 
other  bees  time  to  find  the  entrance  and  crawl  in.  These 
bees  were  the  ruddy  pimiro,  named  after  a  small,  red  pepper, 
similar  to  the  pimi.  I  have  seen  five  honey-bees,  for  each  of 
which  the  Indians  have  names. 

It  cannot  be  a  common  experience  to  have  a  plague  of 
butterflies.  Each  June,  our  store-room  was  invaded  by  a 
large,  dark  butterfly,  which  would  swarm  over  the  bananas 
(before  we  had  the  wire  room) ,  and  rise  in  a  cloud  from  the 
sugar-tin. 

Galaxies  of  yellow  butterflies,  having  pale-green  under 
the  wings,  may  be  seen  anywhere,  on  the  river.  When  set- 
tled upon  the  sand  at  the  brink  of  the  water,  they  have  the 
appearance  of  a  bed  of  leaves  erect.  Mingled  with  these 
companies  are  some  others  of  a  deep  orange  hue. 

Of  ants  there  is  no  end.  Tuka  and  Thepokaru  are  tun- 
nelled by  the  kushie,  which  interfere  seriously  with  attempts 
at  cultivation.  In  the  bush  about  the  Thewarikuru  is  a  long, 
black  ant,  which  whistles  or  produces  a  sound  in  some  way, 
when  disturbed — s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s.  Ants  swarm  over  the  ground 
and  the  trees.  In  size  they  vary  from  the  pin's  head  miku 
thamu,  to  black  insects,  almost  an  inch  long.  To  the  west 
of  Kwatata  Savannah  is  a  stretch  of  country  which  might 
appear  to  be  a  burial  ground  of  the  ancients,  with  many  steles 
standing  yet.  According  to  the  nature  of  the  soil,  they  are 
terra  cotta,  brown,  or  grey.  These  are  the  mona,  or  nests 
of  the  wood- ants ;  they  may  be  two  feet  or  five  feet  high.  A 
tribe  of  Indians  takes  its  name  from  these  monas — the  Pata- 


486         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

monas  of  the  Upper  Potaro.    Pata — place ;  mona — the  ant's 
nest. 

No  one  can  know  the  district  without  knowing  the  ka- 
bouri  fly.  We  encountered  it  just  above  Rewa  Mouth.  It 
has  been  said  that  this  pest  is  not  to  be  found  more  than  a 
hundred  yards  away  from  water.  We  found  it  troublesome 
in  our  house,  half  a  mile  in  a  straight  line  from  the  water, 
and  we  have  found  it  farther  afield.  It  is  a  blood-sucker, 
which  marks  one  as  with  fine  pocks.  Besides  this  fly,  we  had 
an  angular,  or  greenish-black  blood-sucker,  which  skulked 
under  the  chairs  and  tables  and  attacked  one's  legs  and 
ankles.  My  wife  has  a  lump  resulting  from  a  bite  received 
over  a  year  ago.  I  sent  a  specimen  to  Mr.  Rodway,  who 
identifies  it  as  Lepiselaga  cerripes.  It  is  plentiful  at  Rewa 
Mouth,  amongst  other  places.  The  Indians  say  it  dwells  in 
holes  in  trees  and  tacoubas.  A  large,  green  and  amber  fly 
annoyed  the  cattle  and  horses  a  great  deal,  after  the  heavy 
rains,  in  1915.  Those  animals  which  ventured  down  the  hill 
to  the  savannahs  would  come  racing  in  with  swarms  of  these 
flies,  and  the  common  cow-flies,  buzzing  about  them  and 
sucking  them.  These  flies  would  seem  to  lay  their  eggs  in 
the  sandy  banks  of  the  river,  close  to  the  roots  of  the  trees 
and  shrubs.  I  saw  myriads  of  them,  as  they  buzzed  about 
the  bank,  or  settled  and  scratched  the  sand.  This  was  in 
October.  Mr.  Davis  has  described  a  fly  which  occasionally 
attacks  his  cattle.  It  would  seem  to  be  rare.  When  an  ani- 
mal is  attacked,  it  is  seized  with  terror,  and  dashes  to  the 
nearest  stream,  with  its  tail  erect  and  head  askew.  I  have 
not  seen  the  fly,  which,  if  not  previously  listed,  might  be 
called  Christie's  Fly.  Swarms  of  tiny  flies  cover  the  savan- 
nahs. They  buzz  irritatingly  in  one's  ear,  unlike  the  ka- 
bourie,  which  makes  no  noise.  I  am  told  that  there  are  two 
species  of  kabourie;  Simulium  guianense,  and  Simulium 
amazonicum.  I  seem  to  have  noticed  two  species  on  the 
Rapo-nunni,  the  second  (if  there  be  no  mistake) ,  could  hard- 
ly be  the  amazonicum. 


HINTERLAND   NOTES  487 

As  for  marabimtas  or  wasps,  their  nests  are  abundant 
in  the  bush,  behind  big  leaves. 

We  did  not  find  that  the  timbers  of  our  house  were  at- 
tacked by  ants,  but  by  two  borers,  similar  in  form,  though 
one  is  larger  than  the  other.  They  bored  into  and  hollowed 
out  the  wood,  scattering  a  fine  dust  over  the  ground,  or  the 
floor.  I  have  the  Indian  names  of  those  woods  which  the 
borers  do  not  attack.  I  began  to  press  leaves  and  to  make 
sketches  of  them,  with  notes.  When  building  a  house  care 
should  be  taken  that  the  Indians  are  made  to  search  for  the 
right  wood,  or  they  will  bring  in  the  first  that  comes  to  hand, 
although  they  know  it  is  liable  to  attack  and  will  not  last  a 
year. 

It  was  interesting,  when  digging,  to  find  the  rhinocer- 
ous  beetle,  embedded  in  earthen  cases,  at  a  depth  of  eighteen 
inches  from  the  surface  of  the  soil.  This  was  in  an  old  ant- 
heap.  Some  of  the  beetles  were  pale  yellow,  as  if  only  just 
hatched.  Others  were  rufus-sepia.  And  others,  again,  were 
almost  black. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

INDIAN  CHARMS 

By 

JAMES  RODWAY, 
Curator  of  the  Georgetown  Museum 

To  the  native  Indian  his  beenas  are  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance— he  can  do  nothing  without  them.  They  assure 
success  in  all  his  undertakings,  and  must  have  done  much  to 
make  him  happy.  There  is  a  tendency  in  other  races  to  de- 
pend on  fate,  good  luck,  charms,  amulets  and  prayers,  but 
only  the  South  American  Indian  has  adopted  beenas.  Fail- 
ure in  attaining  some  desirable  object  drives  other  people 
to  curse,  and  find  fault  with  something  or  somebody;  the 
Indian  is  hardly  ever  angry.  His  failure  to  shoot  a  labba 
or  deer  is  due  to  something  connected  with  his  beenas  for 
those  animals.  Perhaps  their  virtue  has  been  exhausted  and 
he  must  reinoculate  himself  to  restore  it,  or  a  woman  may 
have  touched  those  he  used.  But  he  does  not  abuse  or  scold 
his  wife,  dog  or  gun,  but  tries  quietly  to  put  the  thing  right. 
He  is  not  much  of  a  thinker,  and  yet  he  chooses  a  similar 
course  to  that  of  a  rational  man.  A  blundering,  passionate 
fellow  vents  his  spite  on  all  around,  but  the  man  with  a  well 
balanced  mind  tries  to  find  out  the  cause  of  a  failure.  Of 
course  we  may  say  that  the  Indian's  way  is  absurd,  but  it  is 
not  nearly  as  absurd  as  that  of  the  fault-finder  or  the  scold. 

Some  of  the  ideas  connected  with  beenas  are  pretty  and 
almost  poetical.  Take,  for  example,  the  sololio  or  swallow 
beena.  It  is  a  caladium  with  white  dots,  suggesting  flights 
of  birds,  in  fact  it  recalls  the  line  of  the  poet, 

"When  the  swallows  homeward  fly." 

The  idea  of  the  sociability  of  these  birds  does  not  come 
to  the  Indian  from  Europe,  but  has  no  doubt  been  spon- 


4 


FIG.  143.    CALADIUM   BEENAS.   OR  INDIAN   CHARMS 


INDIAN  CHARMS  489 

taneously  evolved.  People  in  all  countries  love  to  meet  their 
relations  and  friends ;  they  write  letters  and  send  out  invita- 
tions. The  Indian  can  do  nothing  but  use  his  swallow,  or 
the  other  beena,  if  his  friends  do  not  come  Ijack,  at  the  time 
when  the  last  hole  of  the  stick,  left  behind  on  their  departure, 
is  clear  from  the  cord.  This  stick  has  been  treasured ;  every 
day  the  thread  is  removed  from  one  hole  and  every  day  their 
return  comes  nearer.  But,  something  happens  and  they 
don't  come ;  they  may  be  delayed  from  many  causes  some  of 
which  are  well  known.  There  may  be  uneasiness,  but  the 
Indian  .does  not  feel  any  real  distress.  He  does  not  neglect 
his  duties  or  sit  down  and  groan;  he  is  never  downhearted. 
He  may,  however,  have  hung  up  a  "leaf  of  life,"  and  as  this 
has  sent  out  some  young  sprouts,  he  is  assured  that  all  is 
well  with  his  parents  or  friends.  Nevertheless,  something 
more  may  be  done,  and  he  therefore  inoculates  himself  with 
the  swallow  beena  to  make  them  come  all  the  quicker.  Per- 
haps they  may  return  next  day,  and  of  course  the  beena  has 
proved  itself  a  success. 

The  love  beenas  are  also  pretty  and  suggestive.  An  old 
man  wants  to  marry  a  young  girl — she  can  be  charmed  even 
when  she  has  expressed  a  dislike  to  her  suitor.  He  uses  the 
special  beena,  which  is  the  caladium  with  a  crimson  suffused 
centre  an  inch  or  two  in  diameter.  The  girl  knows  that  she 
is  being  charmed  and  drawn  to  the  man.  Something  bad 
for  her  will  happen  if  she  resists  and  therefore  she  consents 
to  the  marriage.  The  man  is  proud  of  his  beena  and  the 
girl  excuses  her  love  on  the  ground  that  she  was  charmed. 
We  do  not  find  such  marriages  entirely  failures. 

The  girl,  however,  may  get  somewhat  tired  of  her  old 
husband  and  turn  her  eyes  towards  a  younger  man.  The 
old  man  is  sharp  enough  to  see  that  he  must  do  something. 
But,  he  does  not  abuse,  strike  or  chop  her  like  some  of  the 
other  races,  but  gets  the  beena  which  he  believes  will  help  to 
retain  her  love.  This  caladium  has  a  broader  suffusion  than 
the  love  beena,  and  perhaps  suggests  that  there  are  wider 


490         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

sympathies  between  man  and  wife  than  exist  with  lovers. 
The  wife  sees  her  husband  rub  the  beena  upon  her  bead  apron 
and  as  a  matter  of  course,  her  love  is  retained.  She  is  not 
annoyed,  but  takes  it  as  a  matter  of  course. 

A  marriage  without  offspring  is  never  complete.  This 
is  accepted  by  all  primitive  people  and  is  conspicuous  among 
the  Indians.  Here  we  get  the  woman's  special  beenas,  which 
she  keeps  in  her  own  domain,  the  cassava  field.  The  most 
striking  is  perhaps  a  species  of  Calathea  which  has  many  off- 
shoots from  the  base  of  the  stem,  something  like  those  of 
arrowroot ;  they  suggest  the  idea  of  offspring,  and  are  cooked 
and  eaten  by  the  woman.  If  this  beena  fails  she  may  resort 
to  the  bush  and  get  the  pretty  birds'-nest  fungus. 

The  boy  and  girl  lovers  carry  on  a  kind  of  courtship 
where  the  father  of  the  girl  demands  proofs  of  the  boy's  pro- 
ficiency in  manly  accomplishments.  Perhaps  the  old  man 
is  not  entirely  pleased  with  the  proposed  match,  and  will  put 
obstacles  in  the  way.  Then  the  youth  must  get  a  favor  beena 
and  steep  it  in  crab  oil,  with  scent.  This  is  rubbed  over  his 
hair  and  skin  before  he  presents  himself  to  his  future  father- 
in-law.  A  tiny  piece  of  the  beena  must  also  be  placed  be- 
tween the  lips.  The  sheepish  lover  before  entering  the  benab 
spits  out  the  beena  and  rubs  it  into  the  ground  with  his  foot, 
this  is  supposed  to  insure  a  favorable  answer  to  his  suit,  and 
possibly  does  so  because  the  old  man  believes  also  in  the 
charm.  This  is  not  acrid  like  the  caladiums,  and  therefore 
can  be  chewed. 

Presuming  that  he  is  allowed  to  go  on  with  his  courtship 
he  gets  the  laugh  bush  and  gives  some  to  the  girl.  Both  are 
pleased  with  each  other  and  want  to  be  happy  in  company. 
That  they  are  so  must  surely  be  credited  to  the  beena  and 
their  belief  in  it. 

And  so  we  might  go  with  the  man  as  hunter  and  fish- 
erman. Every  game  beast,  bird  and  fish  has  its  own  charms, 
either  general  or  particular,  and  each  inspires  hope  and 
confidence  because  the  man  has  faith  in  them.  He  does  not 


INDIAN  CHARMS  491 

curse  the  game  when  it  escapes,  nor  does  he  blame  his  gun 
or  dog;  they  also  must  be  charmed  with  special  beenas. 

There  does  not  appear  to  be  any  connection  with  either 
good  or  evil  spirits,  except  perhaps  in  the  case  of  the  water- 
mamma  or  manatee,  which  is  supposed  to  upset  the  corial 
and  carry  people  down  to  a  kind  of  fairyland  beneath  the 
dark  waters.  It  can  easily  be  understood  that  the  dark 
coffee-colored  river  or  creek  is  a  mystery.  It  is  not  trans- 
parent, and  therefore  is  unlike  clear  mountain  streams;  its 
depths  are  impenetrable.  The  cayman,  perai  or  sting  ray  may 
be  there,  but  they  are  not  visible.  These  dangers  are  known, 
but  it  is  quite  possible  to  the  Indian  that  some  strange  crea- 
ture may  be  at  work  about  the  rapids  to  produce  whirlpools 
and  cross  currents.  Then  again,  there  are  submerged  rocks 
and  masses  of  those  clinging  weeds,  which  hamper  a  swim- 
mer, as  well  as  hooked  palms,  which  may  hold  and  upset  a 
small  corial.  The  real  dangers  are  mixed  up  with  the  siren, 
until  they  form  one  being,  who  may  be  perhaps  mischievous, 
but  hardly  evil.  It  may  be  repelled  or  propitiated  by  rub- 
ring  the  bulb  of  the  red  lily  over  the  corial  before  encoun- 
tering the  danger.  It  may  be  safely  stated,  however,  that  in 
this  as  in  other  cases,  the  use  of  the  charm  does  not  make  the 
paddler  less  careful. 

The  tiny  element  of  superstition  in  the  idea  of  the  water- 
mamma  suggests  something  similar  in  the  Kinaima.  The 
avenger  of  blood  is  a  reality,  but  his  supposed  preternatural 
capabilities  are  mythical.  He  carries  out  a  duty  which  is 
often  most  painful  and  arduous,  and  as  might  be  expected 
is  assisted  by  a  beena. 

No  one  can  tell  the  real  thoughts  of  another;  we  are 
often  at  a  loss  to  explain  our  own.  We  cannot  understand 
the  meaning  of  many  words  which  are  common  in  our 
mouths.  It  is  not  therefore  to  be  supposed  that  we  can  get 
a  true  theory  of  the  beena  cult.  We  may  say  they  are  charms 
to  promote  good  luck,  medicines  or  ordeals.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  word  means  to  attract,  but  this  does  not  cover  all 


492         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

their  uses.  There  is  nothing  malicious  about  them,  and  we 
may  safely  state  that  they  are  harmless.  The  cuts  and 
scratches  do  not  fester,  for  the  caladiums  act  as  styptics; 
it  is  therefore  not  real  inoculation.  It  has  been  hinted  to  me 
that  perhaps  there  may  sometimes  be  septic  matter  on  the 
tuber.  Possibly  this  may  be  so,  but  it  must  be  very  rare. 
The  acrid  principle  of  the  beena  is  antiseptic,  and  as  in  the 
case  of  moka-moka,  which  is  allied  to  the  caladiums,  the  juice 
is  decidedly  useful  in  cuts  and  wounds. 

We  may  say  that  beenas  are  medicines.  If  a  man  fails 
in  his  hunting  and  fishing,  there  is  something  wrong;  he  is 
weak  and  requires  a  "pick-me-up."  This  is  at  least  part  of 
the  work  of  the  beena,  for  it  stimulates  the  man  to  put  out 
all  his  energies  and  to  overcome  difficulties.  They  are  the 
foundations  of  hope  and  trust. 

Beenas  differ  from  charms  and  amulets  in  the  fact  that 
they  are  not  worn  by  Indians;  they  are  rubbed  on  the  skin, 
with  or  without  cutting,  taken  with  food,  or,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  nose  beena,  used  as  ordeals.  The  poor  dog  has  to  suf- 
fer much  before  it  can  become  proficient  as  a  hunter.  The 
majority  are  varieties  of  Caladium  bicolor,  those  lovely 
plants  which  are  suffused  with  crimson,  blotched  and  spotted 
with  white,  red  and  violet,  or  lined  on  the  veins.  They  vary 
in  shape  from  sagittate  to  ovate  and  generally  peltate.  On 
their  forms  and  markings  depend  their  "signatures." 

This  idea  of  "signatures"  seems  to  have  belonged  to 
primative  man;  it  was  prominent  in  Old  World  Medicine. 
The  idea,  as  formulated  by  the  herbalist,  was  that  every  me- 
dicinal plant  was  marked  in  such  a  way  that,  if  we  could  only 
perceive  the  sign,  it  would  tell  us  its  use:  For  example,  the 
adder's-tongue  evidently  pointed  to  its  virtue  against  snake 
poisoning,  as  does  the  labaria  plant  to  our  Indians.  The 
"signature"  is  not  always  so  plain  as  in  these  cases,  but  can 
often  be  discovered  when  a  hint  is  given.  Many  of  the  beenas 
have  suggestive  forms  and  markings  that  might  be  thought 
purposive. 


INDIAN   CHARMS  493 

In  some  the  front  of  the  animal's  face  is  indicated,  the 
lobes  of  the  leaf  resembling  the  ears,  then  we  have  the  spots 
and  suffusions,  the  sheen  and  the  form.  A  Xanthosma  has  a 
malformed  leaf  at  the  back  supposed  to  indicate  the  musk 
gland  of  the  peccary  for  which  it  is  the  beena.  Then  we  have 
Acontias  helleborifolius;  the  digitate  leaves  indicating  the 
barbels  of  the  fish  for  which  it  is  used.  Cipura  paludosa  is 
either  a  medicine  or  a  beena;  its  red  bulb  is  sufficiently  like 
a  swollen  and  inflamed  ear-lobe  to  account  for  its  being  an 
ear-ache  remedy. 

Many  of  our  frogs  are  prettily  marked  and  some  of 
them  are  beenas.  One  of  the  most  handsome  is  Phyllome- 
dusa,  a  beena  for  the  tapir,  but  I  can  find  no  signature  in 
this  or  any  other  of  the  frogs.  The  tiny  species  that  is  swal- 
lowed alive  is  a  general  beena  and  recalls  the  fact  that  a  live 
frog,  was  once  administered  in  Europe  for  what  was  called 
"frog  in  the  throat."  Some  insect  larva  that  stings  may  per- 
haps be  one  of  those  moths  which  produce  much  irritation 
if  accidentally  touched,  but  I  have  never  seen  a  specimen. 
This  may  be  an  ordeal  rather  than  a  beena,  but  there  is  no 
line  of  demarcation,  for  wasps,  ants  and  scorpions  are  beenas 
as  well  as  tests  of  courage  and  endurance.  A  man  or  even 
a  boy  would  be  ashamed  to  cry  out  when  stung. 

It  may  be  presumed  that  there  is  a  beena  for  every  game 
animal,  whether  beast,  bird  or  fish.  The  charm  may  perhaps 
generally  be  used  to  attract,  but  there  is  also  an  idea  that 
beenas  repel  noxious  creatures.  If  the  snake  beena  is  used 
it  certainly  cannot  be  supposed  to  attract  a  labaria,  but  ra- 
ther to  protect  from  its  bite.  I  have  been  shown  a  jaguar 
beena,  but  it  is  rather  doubtful.  My  lists  include  specimens 
from  Mr.  Penard,  Surinam  (Carib)  ;  Dr.  Roth  (Arawak 
and  Carib)  ;  and  from  the  Upper  Demerara  (Arawak)  as 
well  as  some  from  Creoles.  In  a  few  cases  the  same  beena  is 
reported  as  used  for  different  animals  in  two  or  three  locali- 
ties, but  there  is  a  general  consensus  in  many  cases.  We 
should  not  expect  absolute  uniformity  in  different  tribes. 


494         TROPICAL  WILD   LIFE    IN   BRITISH   GUIANA 

The  game  beasts  represented  in  our  collections  are  mon- 
keys, tapir,  water-haas,  labba,  accouri,  adouri,  peccary  (2 
species) ,  deer  and  armadillo;  the  fox  and  kibihee  have  beenas, 
but  these  may  be  intended  to  repel.  Reptiles  and  turtles  and 
their  eggs,  snakes  and  alligators;  birds,  powis,  maam  and 
macaws.  There  must  be  many  other  birds  with  special  been- 
as, even  if  we  admit  that  a  general  charm  covers  beasts,  birds 
and  fishes.  Our  beenas  for  fishes  include  ten  species ;  prob- 
ably there  are  many  more.  We  may  safely  presume  that  we 
do  not  know  a  quarter  of  them;  yet  I  have  thought  it  well 
to  make  a  provisional  list.  The  subject  is  so  curious  and 
interesting  that  possibly  some  people  may  be  induced  to  go 
farther  towards  completing  the  collection. 

Bovianders,  as  may  be  expected,  believe  in  the  Indian 
beenas  as  do  some  of  the  Creoles  in  town  who  have  adopted 
the  notion.  But  they  do  not  appear  to  scarify  themselves 
for  they  are  not  so  much  inclined  to  test  their  own  power  of 
endurance.  Love  charms  are  in  vogue,  and  even  educated 
people  have  inquired  for  them.  The  good-luck  seed  (Cer- 
bera  thevetia) ,  is  in  almost  every  market-woman's  purse  or 
wallet,  but  I  cannot  find  that  this  is  an  Indian  beena,  al- 
though it  is  much  used  for  belts  and  anklets  in  dances.  It 
may  be  suggested  that  possibly  anatto  may  be  an  Indian 
beena,  although  I  cannot  find  that  it  is  called  so;  it  is,  how- 
ever, supposed  to  be  protective  against  insects  and  may,  per- 
haps, when  rubbed  all  over  the  skin,  with  oil,  ward  off  chills. 

A  very  pretty  caladium  with  white  blotches  is  often 
grown  outside  a  window  in  town ;  this  is  the  money  or  good- 
luck  beena.  The  signature  suggests  silver,  but  it  is  supposed 
to  be  more  effectual  if  a  sixpence  or  shilling  be  planted  un- 
der the  tubers.  A  man  told  me  that  he  once,  when  a  boy, 
stole  the  shilling  his  mother  had  planted  to  insure  good-luck. 
There  is  another  caladium  with  red  and  white  spots  which 
is  also  grown  to  promote  good  luck;  it  is  fairly  common. 
I  cannot  find  that  these  are  rubbed  over  the  body;  they  are 


INDIAN  CHARMS  495 

more  of  the  nature  of  charms,  the  possession  of  which  is  suffi- 
cient to  insure  success  in  any  undertaking. 

Balata  bleeders  and  gold  diggers  believe  in  luck,  and 
sometimes  carry  beenas  in  the  handkerchiefs  tied  around 
their  waist.  I  never  heard  of  inoculating  or  even  rubbing 
on  the  skin  in  their  cases.  The  wood-cutter,  however,  rubs 
a  beena  on  his  arms  before  commencing  to  haul  timber  and 
the  women  who  carry  loads  of  wood  on  their  heads  put  a 
leaf  under  the  pad.  I  have  been  told  of  a  kind  of  bush-rope, 
used  as  a  fighting  beena ;  it  is  rubbed  on  the  arms  after  scari- 
fying and  is  supposed  to  strengthen  them  and  assist  in 
gaining  the  victory.  The  woman  whose  husband  is  cutting 
timber  uses  a  beena  if  she  wants  him  to  come  home.  She 
keeps  it  in  a  bottle  and  shakes  it,  after  which  he  is  supposed 
to  have  an  impulse  to  leave  his  work  and  respond  to  the  call. 
As,  however,  Creoles  have  very  little  faith,  the  beenas  are  not 
so  effectual  with  them  as  with  the  Indians. 

Love  beenas  are  used  by  Creoles  to  some  extent.  They 
generally  include  the  head  of  a  hummingbird  pounded  and 
mixed  with  some  perfume.  It  appears  that  the  soft  parts 
only  are  used  after  drying  and  these  may  be  mixed  with 
part  of  a  male  bat  and  a  caladium  similar  to  that  used  to 
invoke  good-luck.  It  may  be  possible  to  find  cases  of  suc- 
cess among  the  more  ignorant,  but  we  need  not  expect  such 
certainty  as  with  native  Indians. 

Beenas  suggest  the  beginnings  of  what  we  may  consider 
primitive  religion.  First  we  have  man's  great  struggle  for 
success,  which  means  mastery  over  other  animals.  He  tried 
his  best  by  inventing  weapons  and  partially  succeeded.  But 
he  was  never  uniformly  successful,  for  although  his  bows, 
arrows  and  blow-pipe  were  in  good  order  and  nothing  was 
faulty  with  his  eyes,  something  might  go  wrong,  and  there 
would  be  no  meat.  He  seems  to  have  got  the  idea  at  a  very 
early  period  that  he  could  be  assisted.  How  it  first  came  is 
naturally  very  obscure;  we  see  it  as  the  result  of  long  use 
of  beenas.  Possibly  a  caladium  may  have  been  found  grow- 


496         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

ing  among  the  remains  of  some  game  animal,  and  thus  have 
given  the  idea  of  connection  between  them.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  there  is  a  beena  to  promote  the  growth  of  cas- 
sava ;  this  is  interesting  in  view  of  the  ideas  of  corn  spirits  in 
the  Old  World,  and  points  to  the  probable  rise  of  the  cult 
when  man  grew  roots.  It  is  to  be  noted  that,  as  beenas  are 
mostly  used  by  men,  that  they  were  generally  connected  with 
the  mastery  over  beasts,  women  and  perhaps  unknown  in- 
fluences partially  idealized  as  bush  spirits. 

When  we  search  for  the  Indian's  gods  we  fail ;  his  dev- 
ils are  wood  and  water  spirits,  which  may  be  compared  with 
goblins  and  fairies.  They  are  hardly  malicious,  for  like  all 
ideal  spirits  they  are  reflections  of  the  character  of  their 
makers.  We  should  not  expect  to  find  the  ogre  with  his 
"Fee-fi-fo-fum"  among  a  good-tempered  people,  but  we  do 
expect  the  better  type  supposed  to  assist  us  when  we  treat 
them  properly.  Most  of  the  wood-spirits  are  supposed  to 
be  either  animals  or  to  take  their  forms  when  they  find  it 
necessary ;  here  there  is  some  resemblance  to  the  Old  World 
ideas. 

Are  the  beenas  gods  or  guardian  spirits?  The  Indian 
is  too  matter-of-fact  for  such  ideas.  And  yet  they  are  some- 
thing more  than  caladiums  and  frogs.  I  am  hoping  that 
someone  will  be  better  able  to  find  out  than  I  can  with  my 
very  limited  opportunities. 

LIST  OF  BEENAS. 

Tapir,  2  var.  black-eared  and  white-eared. 

Caladium  bicolor  and  Phyllomedusa  bicolor 
Peccary,  2  species. 

Caladium  and  Xanthosma  atrovirens  var.  appendiculatum 
Water-haas,  Capybara, 

Caladium 
Labba  or  Paca 

Caladium  and  Dioscorea 
Acouri  or  Agouti, 

Caladium;  Hyla  septentrionalis  and  Dendrobates  trivittatus 
Adouri,  or  Tailed  Agouti 

Tradescantia  umbellata 


INDIAN   CHARMS  497 


Deer, 

Cipura  paludosa  and  a  irog  sp.  ? 
Wirriboceri  Deer,, 

Hyla  punctata 
Ant-bear, 

Caladium 
Sloth, 

Caladium 
Monkey, 

Caladium 
Monkey,  Coati 

Caladium 
Armadillo,  round-eared, 

Aroid 
Armadillo,  thin-eared 

Aroid 
Savanah  Fox 

Caladium 
Kibihee,  Coati-mundi, 

Caladium, 
Jaguar, 

Caladium. 
Snakes, 

Deacontium  foecundum. 
Alligator, 

Caladium. 
Turtles  and  their  eggs, 

Caladium. 
Maam, 

Caladium. 
Powis  or  Curassow 

Calathea  sp.  ?   and  Leptodactylus  mystacinus. 
Macaws, 

Piriqueta  villosa. 
Duruquara  or  Guiana  Partridge 

Calathea. 
Marudi  or  Guan 

Calathea. 

FISH. 

Pataka,  Huri,  (Hoplias  malabaricus) 

Caladium. 
Haimara,  (Hoplias  sp.?) 

Caladium. 
Umiri,  (Sciadeichthys  ?) 

Caladium. 


498         TROPICAL  WILD  LIFE   IN   BRITISH  GUIANA 

Kassi,  (Rhamdia  sebae) 

Caladium. 
Lukunanni,  (Cichla  ocellaris) 

Caladium. 
Gilbaker,  (Sciadeichthys  parkeri} 

Caladium. 
Barubata,  (Eigenmannia  virescens} 

Caladium. 
Cartabak,   (Metynnist) 

Caladium. 
Kaweri  (Hoplo sternum  littorale) 

Acontias  helleborifolius 
General, — To  promote  success  with  all  game. 

Whip  of  Mauritia  fibre :  tiny  frog  swallowed  alive ;  larvae. 
Shooting — To  help  the  aim;  not  to  miss. 

Caladium. 
Huntsman — To  assist  in  tracking. 

Caladium. 
Huntsman — to  prevent  his  getting  lost. 

Caladium. 
Huntsman — To  increase  his  courage. 

Caladium. 
Huntsman — Against  snakes  and  other  noxious  animals. 

Several  Aroids  and  Marantaceae. 
Boy  at  puberty — To  promote  general  success  and  as  ordeals. 

Stinging  ants,  wasps,  and   scorpions. 
Paiman — Preparatory  ordeals. 

To  eat  only  jacamars  and  drink  tobacco  water. 
Dogs — To   improve  their   scent. 

Caladiums;  also  offal  of  game  animals;  gland  of  peccary  for  that 

animal,  rubbed  on  lacerated  muzzle. 
Love,  Man. 

Dioscorea  sp. 
Love,  Woman 

Several  Caladiums. 
Love,  to  retain,  also  to  drive  away. 

Caladium. 
Courtship,  to  promote  happiness. 

Caladium. 
Courtship,  to  gain  favor  from  parents. 

Entada  polystachya. 
Marriage,  for  children,  woman. 

Calathea  sp.  and  birds-nest  fungus. 
Marriage,  to  use  after  the  birth  of  a  child. 

Calathea  sp. 
Children,  to  make  them  teachable. 

Caladium. 


INDIAN   CHARMS  499 

Medicinal,  Against  pains  in  general  and  for  the  eyes  and  ears. 

Cipura  paludosa,  etc. 
Medicinal — to  increase  the  appetite. 

Caladium. 
Mental,  to  keep  the  memory,  or  retain  or  restore. 

Calathea. 
Friendship,  to  promote  sociability. 

Caladium. 
Friendship,  to  bring  back  absent  friends. 

Caladium. 
Friendship,  to  increase. 

Caladium. 
Enmity,  to  bring  on  a  disturbance. 

Caladium, 
Enmity,  to  bring  trouble. 

Caladium. 
Enmity,  to  gain  success  in  a  blood-feud. 

Caladium. 
Water-mamma  or  Manatee,  to  conciliate ;  against  dangers  on  the  water. 

Hippeastrum  equestre. 
White  man,  to  gain  favor  in  a  court  of  justice. 

Calathea. 
Rain,  to  use  in  a  drought. 

Pedilanthus  tithymaloides. 
Provision  ground,  to  insure  fertility. 

Xanthosma. 


INDEX 


Accouri,  465 

beena   for,   496 
Acontias  helleborifolius,  493 
Adouri,  465 

beena  for,  496 
Ageronia  feronia,  483 
Agouti,  see  Accouri 
Alligators,  beena  for,  49T 

forms  of,  289-90,  470-1 

nesting,  283-9 
Ani,  smooth-billed,  67,  97 

bill,  319 

digitis,  312-14 

femur,  318 

pterylosis,  307-9 

tarso-metatarsus,  319 

tibio-tarsus,  318 

wing  growth,  314-18 

wing  pads,  309-12 
Anoplops  ruflgula,  228 
Ant-catcher,   rufous-fronted,  nest  of, 

228-31 
Ants,  485-6 

Appun,  Carl  Ferdinand,  39-41 
Arapaima  gigas,  481 
Arawona,  481 
Armadillo,   beena    for,   497 
A  teles  paniscus,  466 


Bartica,  geology,  45-9 

history,  31-7 

location,  43 
Bats,  468-9 
Beckett,  Mr.,  26 
Beena,  aquatic,  490-1 

game,  494 

general  use,  488,  492-3,  495-6 

good  luck,  494-5 

love,  489-90,  495 

medium,  492 

sociability,  488-9 

specific  uses,  496-9 
Black-bird,  red-breasted,  63 
Bush-bird,  cinereous,  nest  of,  227-8 
Butterflies,  483-4,  485 


Cacique,  giant,  96-7 

red-backed,  95 

yellow  backed,  349-50 
Cairina  moschnta,  472 
Caladium  bicolor,  492 
Caprimulgus  nigriscens,  219 
Captivity,  birds,  122-6 
Capybara,  beena  for,  496 
Catbird,   pinion   development,  356 

wing  development,  348-9 
Cecropia,  57 
Cerbera  thepetia,  494 
ChaemepeUa  talpacoti,  213 
Charms,  see  Beena 
Checkbird,  67 
Chubb,  Charles,  42 
Cipura  paludosa,  493 
Clementi,  Hon.  and  Mrs.  Cecil,  26 
Climate,  29,  69-70,  457-9 
Coati,  464-5 

beena  for,  497 
Cock-of-the-Rock,  125 
CoraUus  caninus,  471 
Cotinga,  pompadour,  125 
Courtship,  of  birds,  115 
Crake,  Cayenne,  nest  of,  216-217 
Creciscus  "viridis,  216 
Cunningham,  Mr.,  26 
Curassow,  beena  for,  497 
Curlew,  Esquimo,  63,  99 
Cyanerpes  cyaneus,  241 


Deer,  466 

beena  for,  497 
Dendrocygna  discolor,  472 

viduata,  472 
Dogs,  beena  for,  498 
Dove,   grey  ground,  65 

red  mountain,  nest  of,  213-15 

talpacoti  ground,  65 

nest  of,  213 
Duraquara,  beena  for,  498 


Eel,  electric,  481 

Egerton,  Sir  Walter  and  Lady,  26 


502 


INDEX 


Egret,  American,  65 

Snowy,  65 

Eigenmann,  Carl,  41 
Elania,  yellow-breasted,  67 
Electrophorus   electricus,  481 
Kmpidonomns  varius,  225 
Eumenes,  buff,  food  storage,  384 

larva,  384-5 

nest,  383-4 


pupation,  385 
red,  food  st 


storage,  379 
larva,  379-81 
nest,  376-9 
pupation,  381 
Ettropygia  helias,  477 


Fish,  beena  for,  497-8 

Flies,  486 

Flycatcher,  oily,  nest  of,  223-5 

streaked,  67 

varied,  67 

varied  streaked,  225 
pterylosis  of,  326-7 
Food,  of  jungle  birds,   108-10 

of  mammals,  111 
Fox,  savannah,  464 

beena  for,  497 
Frere,  Mr.,  26 


Oaleoscoptes   carolinensis,  348,   356 

Oeotrygon  montana,  213-15 

Goat-sucker,  giant,  65 

God-bird,  67 

Crackle,   little   boat-tailed,   63 

Grosbeak,  brown-breasted  pygmy, 

nest' of,  237- 
Guan,  little,  67 
beena  for,  497 

H 

Harrison,  Professor,  26 
Hayes,  Mrs.,  26 
Heron,  agami,  65 

cocoi,  65 

Guiana  green,  63 

development  of  wing  of,  345-6 

little  blue.  65 
Hilhouse,  William,  39 
Hills  Estate,  development  of,  52-60 

location,  31,  43 
Hinterland,  birds  of,  472-80 

climatic  conditions,  457-9 

general  nature,  454-6 

fishes  and  crustaceans  of,  481-3 

how  reached,  459-61 

insects  of,  483-7 


mammals  of,  462-9 

reptiles  of,  469-72 
Hoatzin,  152 

breeding  season,  172 

development  of  wing,  342-3 
of  pinion,  353-4 

distribution,  170-1 

ecology,  156-60 

flight,  156 

nest,  160-3 

young,  163-70,  172-82 
Honey-creeper,  blue,  nest  of,  241-3 


Icterus  chrysocephalus,  243 

croconotus,  478 

vulgaris,  478 
Iworo,  463 


Jacana,  spur-winged,  63 

diastataxy,  299-300 

feather  growth,  295-9 

pterylosis,  293-5 

spurs,  302-3 

toes  and  claws,  300-2 

variations,  303-5 

wing,  305-6 
Jaguar,  462-3 

beena  for,  497 
Jungle,  abundance  of  life  in,  73-6 

dangers  of,  70-3 

ecological  conditions,  80-5 

odors,  89 

seasons  in,  76-9  279-282 

sounds,  89-90 

strata  of  life  in,  85-8 

temperature,  69-70 


Kalacoon   House,  daybreak  chorus, 

272-9 

description  of,  26-9,  271-2 

location,  43,  45,  52 

temperature,  29,  69-70 
King-bird,  grey-headed,  67 
Kingfisher,  great  green,  65 

great  grey,  65 

pygmy,  65 

spotted,  65 

Kiskadee,   Guiana,   pinion    develop- 
ment, 350 

pterylosis,  325-6 

wing  development,  350 
Kvk-over-al,  31-34 


I, abba,  465 
beena  for,  496 


INDEX 


503 


Lachesis   bilineatus,  471 
Legends,  concerning  birds,  116-18 
Lepiselaga  cerripes,  486 
Leucolepia  musica,  231 
Lukanani,  481 
Lutra   brasiliensis,  467 

M 

Maam,  476 

beena  for,  497 
Macaw,  beena  for,  497 
Maipuri,  467 
Manakin,    Orange-headed,    nest   of, 

234-7 

Manatee,   beena   for,   491,   499 
Martin,   gray-breasted,  nesting,  60, 

328-341 

pinion   development,  357-8 
wing  development,  350-1 
purple,  63,  99 
Marudi,  beena  for,  497 
McConnell,  James,  42 
Mionectes  oleagineus,  273 
Monkey,  466-7 
beena  for,  497 

N 

Nighthawk,    dusky,    external    charac- 
ters, 324-5 

nest  of,  219-21 
pterylosis  of  embryo,  321-3 
white-necked,  65 
Nunan,  Hon.  J.  J.,  26 


Ocelot,  463 

Opisthocomus  hoazin,  342,  353 

Opossum,  466 

Oriole,  black-throated,  67 

moriche,  60,  67,  100 

nest  of,  243-6 
Oryzoborus   angolensis   brevirostris, 

237 

crassirostris,  237 
Otter,  467 


Parrakeet,  97-9 

blue-winged,  343-4 
Passion  flower,  59 
Peccary,  465 

beena  for,  496 
Penal  Settlement,  31,  43 
Perai,  as  food,  365 

attacks  on  man,  361-2 
on  other  creatures,  362-4 

feeding  habits,  360-1,  365 

methods   of   catching,   366-7 

range,  359-60 


Peters  Mine  Co.,  43 
Pigeon,  grey-fronted,  67 

rufous,  67 

Pipra  aureola  aureola,  234 
Pitangus  sulphuratus,  325,  350,  355 
Pithys  erythromelas,  478 
Poecilonetta    bahamensis,  472 
Poor-me-one,  65 
Porzan-a  albicollis,  126,  215 
Powis,  beena  for,  497 
Progne  chalybea,  350,  357 
Protective  coloration,  73,  88,   104-8 
Psophia  crepitans,  247,  344,  354 
Pteroglossus   aracari,   347,   356 
Pteronura  sandbachi,  467 


Quadrille  bird,  102 
nest  of,  231-4 

R 

Rail,  cayenne,  63 
white-necked,  63,  125 

nest  of,  215-16 

Relation   to   man,   birds,    118-22. 
Rodway,  James,  26 
Roosting,  birds,  95-9,  112-15 
Rupicola  rupicola,  125 


Sandpiper,   solitary,   63,   99 

spotted,  63,  99 
Sceliphron  fistulare,  415 
Schomburgk,  Richard,  38-9 
Seasons,  76-9,  279-82 
Seed-eater,  black-headed,  nest  of,  239 

chestnut-bellied,  nest  of,  239 
Simulium  amazonicum,  486 

guianense,  486 
Snake-bird,  65 
Snakes,  of  hinterland,  471-2 

beena  for,  497 
Snipe,  Cayenne,  63 
Sociability,  among  birds,  100-4,  110-11 
Sparrow-hawk,  four-banded,  65 
Spinetail,  brown,  67 

yellow-throated,  67 
Sporophila  bouvronoides,  239 

castaneiventris,  237,  239 
Sting-ray,  482 
Sun-bittern,  477 


Tanager,  black,  67 

blue,  60 

lesser  white-shouldered,  67 

palm,  60 
Tapir,  467 
Tern,  great-billed,  65 


504 


INDEX 


Tham.nom.anes  glaucus,  227 
Tinamou,  classification,  255-6 
general,  10-11,  253-5 
Guiana  great,  color,  263 
courtship,  259 
eggs,  263 
habits,  258-9 
molt,  264-5 
nest,  260-3 
parasites,  263-4 
voice,  259 
pileated,  color,  268 
food,  269 
molt,  269-70 
nest,  269 
voice,  268 

sleeping  habits,  257-8 
tarsi,  256-8 
variegated,  color,  269 
food,  269 
molt,  269-70 
nest,  269 
voice,  268 
Tody-flycatcher,  grey,  67 

spotted,  67 

Toucan,  captivity,  183 
early  knowledge  of,   183 
Guiana  species,  185-7 
nesting  habits,  black-necked  ara- 

cari,  199-207 
green  aracari,  187-91 
Guiana  toucanet,   191-2 
red-billed,  192-9 

sulphur-and-white-breasted,  207-9 
Trumpeter,  color,  249-251 
development  of  pinion,  354-5 

wing,  344-5 
food,  248-9 

general  habits,  247-8,  476 
growth  of  plumage,  251-2 
perching,  249 
young,  notes,  249 
Trypoxylon  leucotrichium,  401 
Turtle,  469-70 

beena  for,  497 
Tyrannises  acer,  221 
Tyrantlet,  Guiana,  nest  of,  221-3 


Vampire,  152-3 

Vicissi,  472 

Voice,  among  social  birds,  101-4 


W 

Warapaima,  481 

Warbler,  yellow,  67,  99 

Wasp,  blue  huntress,  food  storage, 

425-30 
larva,  430-2 
nest,  424-5 
pupation,  432-5 
forest  shell,  larva,  409-13 
nest,  407-9 

paralization   of  victims,   410-11 
pupation,  412-14 
one-banded  dauber, 
food  storage,  420 
larva,  420-2 
nest,  415-20 
pupation,  422-3 

paralization,  of  crickets,  439-41 
roaches,  439-41 
spiders,  436-9 

potter,  food  storage,  379,  384 
larva,  379-81,  384-5 
nest,  376-9,  383-4 
pupation,  381,  385 
pupation,   controlled,   443-50 
white-footed,   food  storage,  402-3 
larva,  403-5 
nest,  401-2 
pupation,  404-5 
Whitely,  Henry,  41 
Wing,   development   of,   in   cacique, 

349-50 

catbird,  348-9 
Guiana  green  heron,  345-6 
hoatzin,  342-3 
kiskadee,  350 
parrakeet,  343-4 
toucan,  347-8 
trumpeter,   344-5 

Withers,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  25,  26,  43,  51 
Wren,  Guiana  house,  61 


Xipholena  punicea,   125 

Y 

Yawarri,  99 
Yellow-legs,  99 

Z 

Zethucculun  hamatus,  407 


4023 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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This  book  is  DUE  qn  the  last  date4siamped  below. 


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